Celebrating Dean Eileen Fry-Bowers' Acceptance to the Inaugural ANI Fellows Program
SAN FRANCISCO (May 20, 2026) – We are thrilled to announce that Dean Eileen Fry-Bowers has been invited and graciously accepted to be part of the inaugural class of the Bedford Falls Foundation Academic Nursing Innovation Fellows ("ANI Fellows"). This remarkable achievement not only recognizes the Dean’s outstanding leadership and unwavering commitment to excellence, but also brings great pride and distinction to our entire community. As an ANI Fellow, Dean Fry-Bowers will focus on advancing innovative approaches to nursing education, including the integration of interprofessional learning. She will collaborate with peers nationwide to develop strategies that prepare students to meet evolving workforce needs, directly supporting our institution’s mission of academic excellence and community impact.
About the ANI Fellows:
The Bedford Falls Foundation Academic Nursing Innovation Fellows (ANI Fellows) program is designed to empower academic nursing leaders to drive change in nursing education at scale. The program brings together a cohort of leaders—including Deans, curriculum architects, and clinical partnership chairs—from diverse institutions for a two-year shared learning journey. Unlike traditional committees or conferences, the ANI Fellows cohort fosters sustained inquiry, action learning, and mutual accountability, aiming to transform its members and the field. Participants will engage in systems thinking, develop interventions at key leverage points, and support lasting institutional change. The overarching goal is to build a growing national community of academic nursing leaders who have the capacity, peer support, and shared framework to lead systems-level change in nursing education, producing more “practice-ready” and “employment-ready” graduates, reducing early-career attrition, and strengthening the nursing workforce on which communities depend.
Dean Fry-Bowers' participation in this program will bring valuable new perspectives, resources, and collaborative opportunities to our institution, directly benefiting our faculty and students as we enhance our own academic programs and partnerships.
Systems leaders learn most when they see the system from multiple vantage points. Accordingly, the cohort represents a deliberate cross-section of American nursing education, namely (i) big state universities, (ii) small private, research universities, (iii) health-campus colleges, (iv) faith-based universities, and (iv) HBCU/MSIs universities.
Please join us in congratulating the Dean on this well-deserved honor!
About the Bedford Falls Foundation
The Bedford Falls Foundation is committed to removing financial impediments to a high-quality nursing education and supporting our educational partners in addressing the critical nursing workforce shortage.
For more information, visit their website.
About the USF School of Nursing and Health Professions
The mission of the USF School of Nursing and Health Professions is to improve the health of all populations through equitable and compassionate service, value-driven research, and innovative education of health professionals, preparing them to use their hearts, minds, and souls to change the health of the world. For more information, visit our website.
About the University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco is a private, Jesuit Catholic university that reflects the diversity, optimism, and opportunities of the city that surrounds it. USF offers more than 230 undergraduate, graduate, professional, and certificate programs in the arts and sciences, business, law, education, and nursing and health professions. At USF, each course is an intimate learning community in which top professors encourage students to turn learning into positive action, so the students graduate equipped to do well in the world — and inspired to change it for the better. For more information, visit usfca.edu.
