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Dr. Loretta C. Ford, dean and professor emerita at the University of Rochester School of Nursing in Rochester, New York, is an internationally known nursing leader. She has devoted her career to practice, education, research, Consultation andinfluencing health services, community health And military nursing. Dr. Ford's studies on the nurse's expanded scope of practice in public health nursing, her specialty, led to the creation of the first pediatric nurse practitioner model of advanced practice at the University of Colorado Medical Center. Later, convinced of the need to meld nursing education, practice and research, she provided administrative leadership for a unification model in nursing at the University of Rochester Medical Center in the position of dean of the school of nursing and the director of nursing in the University's Strong Memorial Hospital.

She has served as a visiting professor at St. Luke's College of Nursing in Japan, the University of Washington and University of Florida Schools of Nursing and has led many international nursing education visitations. After her retirement from nursing, she served as interim dean at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the University of Rochester.

Dr. Ford's advanced degrees were earned at the University of Colorado Schools of Nursing and Education. She holds honorary doctorates from seven universities and a number of awards, including the Gustav Lienhard Medal from the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, the Living Legend Award from the American Academy of Nursing, the American College of Nurse Practitioner's Crystal Trail Blazer Award, the Elizabeth Blackwell Award and many others. She has authored over one hundred fifty publications on the history of the nurse practitioner, unification of practice, education, and research, and issues in advanced nursing practice. Dr. Ford consults and lectures on the historical development of the nurse practitioner and on issues in advanced nursing practice in health care.