Gloria Ferraro Donnelly, PhD, RN, FAAN, FCPP served as the founding Dean of Drexel University's College of Nursing and Health Professions from 2002 to 2016. 
 
Her interest in psychiatric-mental health nursing led her to hold clinical and educational positions at Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Hospital and the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital. She has held faculty appointments at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing, Trenton State College in New Jersey and Villanova University. She was the founding Dean of Nursing at La Salle University and is the first Dean of the School of Nursing at MCP Hahnemann University, appointed July 1, l996 and the first dean of the merged College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University, 2002.

Academic Distinctions

The author of four textbooks, winner of two AJN Book of the Year awards, and currently editor of Holistic Nursing Practice, a refereed journal, Dr. Donnelly speaks at the national level on nursing education and a variety of mental health topics including assertiveness, stress and change. 
 
In 1982 she was elected to fellowship in the American Academy of Nursing. In 2003 she was named by the March of Dimes as "Women of Achievement." Dr. Donnelly has served on the Board of Directors of Hahnemann University Hospital since 2007and on the Advisory Board to the Nurses Services Organization, a professional liability company since 2001.

Faculty Fellowships

Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Specialization

Psychiatric-mental health nursing

PhD in Human Development, May 1985
Department of Human Development
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr, PA

Master of Science in Nursing, December, l965
University of Pennsylvania
Graduate School of Nursing
Philadelphia, PA

Bachelor of Science in Nursing, June, l963
Villanova University
College of Nursing
Villanova, PA