Impact in Education: Teresa Hultquist, PhD

Teresa Hultquist, PhD, is the recipient of the 2020-21 UNMC Impact in Education for Visionary Leadership in Education Award. The award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated the ability to skillfully establish or administer an educational initiative or role at UNMC or a national organization.

See information on March 3 ceremony.

• Name: Teresa Barry Hultquist, PhD
• Title: Associate professor, director of evaluation, UNMC College of Nursing
• Joined UNMC: 1998
• Hometown: David City, Nebraska (I grew up on a farm). I have lived in Papillion, Nebraska, since 2013.

You are the recipient of the Visionary Leadership in Education Award, which is given for establishing or administering an educational initiative. Tell us about the benefits of the initiative you oversee.

Currently, I am involved in the College of Nursing’s new dual MSN/MBA program with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, which began admitting students in January 2020. This program is unique because the coursework for the two degrees was designed to be integrated together during the program rather than completing each program separately. This allows students to apply content and skills from both disciplines in tandem.

Each course within each original program of study was examined for overlap with courses at the other institution. Redundancies in content were examined and eliminated through a rigorous review by both colleges, leading to a streamlined, 56-credit program of study incorporating courses from both programs during each semester of study.

Nurse leader/executive students benefit from the focus on health care policy, practice improvement and leadership in the MSN and the broader business lens beyond health care in the MBA. Our students work with MBA students from many different organizations, developing expertise in marketing, customer service, accounting, economics and financial stewardship, business strategy and business analytics. Our MSN/MBA graduates will be able to positively contribute to nursing and organizational operations, seek out trends, adapt to market changes and provide leadership for the future.

Describe your proudest moment as an educator.

The moments that feed my soul are when I talk with alumni, and they tell me that they regularly use the skills they learned in my classes in their nursing practice. Sometimes they will say they didn’t really understand why they needed to learn a particular skill (like budgeting or a strategy to create organizational change), but they have discovered the power of that skill — like being able to equally contribute to organizational financial discussions or leading successful change projects in their organizations.

What advice would you give other faculty members who want to have an impact in education?

My advice is to fully embrace your role as an expert in your content area as well as a “guide on the side” rather than a “sage on the stage” (Allison King, 1993). When we are in partnership with our learners, we recognize that we have information and expertise to share and we know the learner benefits most from integrating that information within the context of their previous experiences. When students have opportunities to actively assemble and process information and connect it to their previous experiences, they are far more likely to remember it and apply it in novel situations. We want learners and educators who embody our UNMC ITEACH values; those who are creative thinkers/innovators, build on team strengths, seek excellence in developing solutions to problems, use ethical reasoning and own their decisions and outcomes, develop novel approaches, and embrace personal and social responsibility and lifelong learning.

Do you have a favorite quote or philosophy on teaching?

“Education is much more than a matter of imparting the knowledge and skills by which narrow goals are achieved. It is also about opening the child’s eyes to the needs and rights of others.” -Dalai Lama