CONWAY PHD FELLOWS PROGRAM: ACCELERATED PHD TRACK
Conway PhD Fellows Program
With a transformative gift from Joanne and Bill Conway from the Bedford Falls Fund, the Fitzpatrick College of Nursing (FCN) has established the Conway PhD Fellows Program to support 25 students seeking a PhD. This incredible support will enable the FCN to build upon its rich history of developing nursing faculty in the Augustinian teacher-scholar model. The Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellows Program is a year-round three-year degree completion program. The Conway PhD Fellows will receive intensive, year-round mentoring from highly qualified research-intensive faculty to complete their degree in three years. Students are required to finish in three years. The first cohort of Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellows was admitted into the FCN PhD program in May 2023.
As a Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellow you will be awarded $80,000 over three years to finance your education in the FCN PhD Program. Funds awarded through the Conway Scholarship can be used for living expenses, tuition, and/or fees. Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellows are encouraged to participate in the Nurse Faculty Loan Program (NFLP) for tuition support. The NFLP is a loan forgiveness program. Graduates who are employed full-time as a nurse educator for four years will have 85% of their NFLP amount forgiven. This comprehensive financial support for qualified students seeking a Nursing PhD degree will reduce the financial barriers that prevent qualified applicants from pursuing a doctoral degree.
The Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellows Program is an accelerated synchronous online degree program with three summer intensive on-campus experiences (All PhD Summer Intensives begin the Tuesday after the Memorial Day Holiday)
- Summer Intensive Year 1 is 2 weeks
- Summer Intensive Year 2 is 3 weeks (2 weeks of on campus classes and 1 week of virtual classes)
- Summer Intensive Year 3 is 2 weeks.
PhD Conway Faculty Fellow
Conway Fellow Mentor Dr. McCain received a Diploma in Nursing from Fairview General Hospital, Cleveland OH, a BA from Baldwin Wallace College (Sociology), a MA (Sociology and Anthropology) from Kent State University, a MS (Child Health Nursing) from SUNY Buffalo, a PhD (Nursing Science) from Case Western Reserve University, and she completed a Robert Wood Johnson Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
The focus of her NINR/NIH funded research has been the development and feeding of preterm infants. Her studies have included randomized clinical trials, mixed methods, and the use of bio-behavioral outcomes. She has past clinical experience as a PNP in primary care, and as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the NICU. She is the Research Editor for Neonatal Network, The Journal of Neonatal Nursing. She retired in 2021 from the position of Dean and Professor, the School of Nursing, Hunter College, CUNY.
Program Admission Information
Exceptionally well-qualified applicants who are committed to an academic career, are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and have completed an application for the PhD Program at the Fitzpatrick College of Nursing are eligible to apply. Applicants must meet all the admission criteria for the traditional PhD Program. If an applicant is BSN-prepared, GRE scores must be submitted as part of the application. Evidence of the following are preferred criteria for admission into the Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellows Program:
- Publication record
- Scholarship experience, such as being a team member on a research study/conducting a pilot study
- Career goal to commit to an academic teaching position upon graduation
- Knowledge and willingness to the Manuscript Option Dissertation
- Group interview (PhD PD/Associate Dean Graduate Program/Research active full/a professor
- Identification of clear and feasible research question
- Identification of a dissertation chair along with a strong rationale for this choice
For May admission as a Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellow interested candidates must have all completed applications receive by November 1. No applications submitted after November 1st will be considered for The Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellows Program. If an applicant is not selected as a Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellow, the application will be included in the general pool of applicants being considered for admission into the traditional FCN PhD Program.
The PhD Advisory Committee reviews all PhD applications and members of this committee will select the Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellows. Annually, there will be five Conway PhD Fellows selected for five consecutive years starting in 2023. All applicants accepted into The Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellows Program will be notified directly via email on or before December 15th. A hardcopy of the acceptance letter and formal agreement will be sent via the U.S. postal service to recipient’s permanent address. Decision to accept the offer as a Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellow, must be sent to nursing.phd@villanova.edu. Fellows will be required to sign and return the agreement before scholarship funds are disbursed.
- Joanne and William Conway PhD fellows agree not to work. If Fellows must work, they agree to not work no more than 10 hours per week. The Accelerated PhD Program should be considered a full-time job.
- Should a Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellow fail to maintain good academic standing, as evidence of B (83.0 average or better) in every course, and/or cease to satisfy eligibility requirements, they will have their scholarship terminated.
- A Joanne and William Conway PhD Fellow must maintain full-time status as per the PhD Accelerated Curriculum. If a Fellow chooses to be unenrolled for a semester or requests a formal Leave of Absence the scholarship will be terminated.