College of Nursing

Dr. Mary Tittle, 2004 Alumna of the Year, BSN 1979, MSN 1981, PhD 1988

Mary Tittle is the 2004-2005 Florida Nurses Association President. She has been a powerful leader and nursing advocate in the state of Florida . A critical care nurse, she has also been a staff nurse, nurse practitioner and educator. Many of our students active in Florida Nursing Students Association remember her as a Special Consultant to the organization. She has been listed in Who's Who in American Nursing and Outstanding Young Women of America.

As one of the first graduates from the College's RN-BSN program she believes that her years at UF provided her with a strong base for her career and continues to stay in contact with the College and many of her professors.

Linda Aiken BSN 1964, MN 1966

Dr. Linda Aiken is Director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research and The Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing and Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia . She is also a senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics and research associate in the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania . Dr. Aiken's research agenda is motivated by a commitment to improving health care outcomes by building an evidence base for health services management and providing direction for national policymakers in the United States and abroad. Her research focuses on the substantive and methodological advances in health outcomes research across a variety of areas including health care systems, hospital quality of care, AIDS care and prevention, innovative models of primary care, and mental health services. Linda continues to stay involved with UF College of Nursing. She served as a keynote speaker at the Dorothy M. Smith Nursing Leadership Conference with Gretta Styles and helped enable the College to commemorate founding Dean Dorothy M. Smith via a permanent exhibit in the College's Lobby.

Maude Rittman BSN 1967, MSN 1968, PhD 1997

Maude Rittman is the Associate Chief Nurse for Research at the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System.

As a nurse researcher she focuses primarily in understanding the everyday lives of persons with stroke, their caregivers, and the experience of living with a chronic illness. In 2002 she was selected as Nurse Researcher of the Year by Sigma Theta and in 2004 received a Dorothy M. Smith Nursing Leadership Award. She also is the Assistant Director for Career Development in the VA Rehabilitation Outcomes Research Center of Excellence at the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center in Gainesville .

Jane Houston, MSN 2001

Jane Houston is the first practicing nurse-midwife with hospital privileges at North Florida Regional Hospital in Gainesville . Jane had worked as a nurse-midwife in the United Kingdom and Australia before moving to Florida and attending the MSN program at the University of Florida . Today her thriving practice delivers about 9 babies each month. She is a passionate advocate for nurse midwifery and has been working hard to raise awareness in the Alachua County community about her profession. When she is not at the hospital you can usually find her bicycling trails throughout central Florida .