Faculty & Staff

L. Michele Issel, PhD, MN, RN

Clinical Associate Professor
Department of Health Systems Science

UIC College of Nursing
845 South Damen Avenue (MC 802)
Chicago, IL 60612-7350

Phone: 312.355.1137
Email: issel@uic.edu

Research / Discovery
Dr. Issel's program of research is focused on the work of public health nurses. She has completed a federally funded national study of Medicaid prenatal case management, a public health service primarly provided by RNs. Her emphasis is on nurses as a key element of the public health workforce.

Teaching / Learning
As faculty in the School of Public Health, Dr. Issel annually teaches a doctoral seminar on the philosophy of science and scientific inquiry. She also occassionally teaches program planning and evaluation for master's students.

Service / Practice
Dr. Issel's public health experience began as a public health nurse in California followed by being Director of Public Health Nursing in Jefferson County, Washington. She also has provided consulting services to HRSA's Region X on developing performance measures, to the Illinois Department of Human Services on enhancing state public health nursing, and to the City of Chicago Department of Public Health on implementing evidence-based practice.

Personal
Dr. Issel serves as Editor-in-Chief of "Health Care Management Review", and a Fulbright Senior Specialist. In June 2008, she received the Loretta Lacy MCH Award from the Association of Teachers of Maternal and Child Health, and in November 2008, along with Dr. Baldwin, shared the Lillian Wald Service Award from the APHA Public Health Nursing Section. The second edition of her textbook on program planning and evaluation is currently available.

Curriculum Vitae:
Click here for PDF

Current Research Projects

• Principal Investigator. HHS/Bureau of Health Professionals/Division of Nursing. "Keeping RNs to Improve and Strengthen Population Health" (KRISP). In order to reduce the turnover rate and improve recruitment of RNs in to public health practice and positions, the grant activities will focus on tracking, analyzing and then improving the quality of public health nursing care.

• Co-PI, with Arden Handler as PI. "Healthy Births for Healthy Communities Evaluation". Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services/Steans Foundation. This is an evaluation of a multi-component intervention to improve the birth outcomes of women with one prior adverse pregnancy outcome. The project implementation and evaluation are done collaboratively with the State and local providers.