Director, School of Nursing
DePaul University
Chicago, IL
William K. Cody is Director of the School of Nursing at DePaul University in Chicago, which focuses on graduate nursing education. He was formerly Dean of the Presbyterian School of Nursing at Queens University of Charlotte for 7 years, Chair of the Department of Family and Community Nursing at UNC Charlotte for 8 years and Executive Director of their Nursing Center for Health Promotion for 12 years. Cody was the founding chair of the board of Shelter Health Services, Inc., which took over the nursing center and has provided healthcare for homeless women and children continuously for a total of 25 years.
Cody is author of 100 publications and a former Contributing Editor for Nursing Science Quarterly. He led in the development of the Charlotte Rainbow PRISM model for service delivery. His publications include articles on qualitative research, loss and grieving, and aspects of philosophy and theory in nursing. Cody edited the textbook, Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives for Advanced Nursing Practice (4th ed.). In 2005, he was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing for his contributions to nursing.
Cody's interests include innovative models of community-based nursing care and community-campus partnerships to serve the underserved. As a professor he has taught a wide variety of courses and has served on numerous master's and doctoral theses. He has held many leadership positions in professional and community organizations, including President of the International Consortium of Parse Scholars (1993-1995), Board of Directors for the House of Mercy (1996-2002), and Board of Directors, National Nursing Centers Consortium (2004-2006). He is currently President of the Illinois Association of Colleges of Nursing.
Awards include the James G. Cannon Award from the Mecklenburg Medical Alliance Endowment (2004), the Bank of America Local Hero Award (2004), the Hunter College Hall of Fame (2001), the David Citron Award from the Regional HIV/AIDS Consortium (2000), the Carrie B. Lenburg Award from Excelsior College (1995), and the American Nurses Foundation Scholar Award (1994).