Professor Emeritus, Indiana University School of Nursing
1935-2005
Passed by the IUPUI Faculty Council at their meeting on April 5, 2005.
Beverly C. Flynn, Professor Emeritus had a distinguished career in education and research in her 29 years of service as a faculty member at Indiana University School of Nursing. Beverly’s contributions as a teacher, mentor, and faculty colleague were evident within the school, the university and countless global communities. Professor Flynn was among the first to forge interdisciplinary partnerships on the campus and to promote primary health care for all. She worked tirelessly with communities large and small across our nation and the world.
Beverly was born December 4, 1935 in Plainfield, New Jersey. She received her BSPHN from the University of Michigan, MS from Boston University, and PhD from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Beverly came to Indiana in 1970 when she accepted a joint appointment with Indiana University School of Nursing and the School of Medicine. Her initial appointment was as the evaluator of the Regenstrief Institute Nurse Clinician Program (a federally funded Family Nurse Practitioner Program). Dr. Flynn was appointed Chairperson, Department of Community Health Nursing in 1975 and was responsible for planning, implementing and evaluating community health nursing and health policy as areas of study in the master’s and doctoral programs in the Indiana University School of Nursing.
Dr. Flynn was the Director of International Programs within the School of Nursing and developed global linkages that expanded opportunities for students and faculty in this area. Beverly was the founding director of the Institute of Action Research for Community Health, (IARCH) which,as a result of her efforts, was subsequently named a World Health Organization Collaborating Center in Healthy Cities. IARCH provides the infrastructure for promoting, and conducting interdisciplinary research related to community health issues. The WHO Collaborating Center for Healthy Cities established research and training through national and international conferences to promote information exchange in healthy cities. Dr. Flynn’s Robert Wood Johnson Foundation “Healthy Cities Indiana” grant in 1988 was one of two statewide initiatives that launched the Healthy Cities movement in the United States, and created public health promotion networks across Indiana, the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Beverly used a 1981 sabbatical leave to continue her research in primary health care during which she analyzed the United Kingdom’s community health and social services for the young chronically sick and disabled. This work laid the foundation for health policy recommendations and she developed a framework for future research in primary health care. In recognition of her work, Beverly was awarded Fellow Commoner, Churchill College and Visitor, Department of Community Medicine at the University of Cambridge, England.
Other awards and honors included election as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (1980), American Nurses’ Association Community Health Nurse of the Year Award (1986), Indiana Public Health Association’s President’s Recognition Award (1988, 1991), the Midwest Alliance in Nursing’s Rozella Schlotfeldt Leadership Award (1991), the American Public Health Association’s Ruth B. Freeman Award from the Public Health Nursing Section (1991), Distinguished Practitioner, National Academies of Nursing Practice (1992), the Indiana University John W. Ryan Award for contributions to International Programs and Studies (1999), and the National League for Nursing’s Anna M. Fillmore Award (1993). As a Visiting Professor,Beverly served as the Myrtle Smith Distinguished Chair in Community Health Nursing, University of South Carolina College of Nursing (1997) Beverly was honored by Indiana University School of Nursing at the 2002 Nursing Gala with the Victoria Champion Boundary Spanning Award.
Dr. Flynn published numerous peer reviewed articles, wrote chapters in nursing and community health texts and received funding for over 20 grant proposals during the course of her academic career. Her work was funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Indiana State Department of Health and Indiana University. Beverly’s professional presentations and consultations are too numerous to cite here. Through her work she positively influenced community health and primary health care around the world.
Beverly was the guiding spirit of community health nursing at Indiana University School of Nursing. Civic engagement and community participation was evident in her work and she served as a pioneer for these initiatives on the campus. Her creative energies were contagious for both faculty and students. Beverly supported and challenged those around her to strive for excellence and worked tirelessly to promote public policy that would improve health. In her retirement she kept close ties with the School of Nursing and continued to work with the WHO Collaborating Center for Healthy Cities and the Brown County Health Support Clinic, an initiative sponsored by the School of Nursing, to provide access to culturally competent health care for the uninsured residents of this rural community.
Beverly’s emphasis on health promotion and positive health practices were not limited to her professional career, but also modeled in her personal life. She approached her diagnosis of and treatments for cancer with vigorous optimism for 15 years. Her life demonstrated the health benefits of a positive approach to living with and managing a life-threatening illness.
This memorial resolution is presented to the Faculty Council of Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis as an expression of the faculty’s profound appreciation of Beverly Flynn’s accomplishments and contributions not only to the university but to the community at large.