Lauren Weaver ’09, whose clinical experience spans more than 15 years since graduating from EMU with a BSN, was recently named the director of the Geisinger School of Nursing in Lewistown, Pennsylvania. She officially started in the role on Nov. 30, after serving as interim director since the end of August. She succeeds Beth Yoder Finkbiner ’88.
As director, Weaver will manage overall operations for its associate degree program and oversee its curricular outcomes. She looks forward to collaborating with faculty, staff, and students to ensure its curriculum is continuously improving, she said.
“Nursing is a calling, and I think nursing education is even more so,” she said. “We have a great program and faculty here, and I’m excited to continue developing future nurses who provide exceptional care for their communities.”
Since joining the school in April 2023, Weaver has served as faculty, academic advisor, and mentor. She was instrumental in course development, student evaluation, and faculty onboarding, according to a news release from the school.
From 2019 to 2023, she served as a faculty member for the Geisinger Lewistown Hospital School of Nursing, where she led courses across multiple specialties and contributed to its re-accreditation. In addition to a BSN, Weaver holds an MSN with a nurse educator focus from Chamberlain University.
Rebecca Stoudt, associate dean for nursing student education at the Geisinger College of Health Sciences, said Weaver brings a wealth of experience in nursing education, clinical practice, and academic leadership. “I am confident she will continue to make our school of nursing the first choice for aspiring nurses looking for hands-on education that prioritizes their own communities’ health and well-being,” she said in the release.
Heeding the call
For as long as she can remember, Weaver says, her grandmother lived with multiple sclerosis. “I watched my grandfather really care for her,” she said. “That’s when I started to gravitate toward health care, specifically nursing.”
She was already well-acquainted with EMU and its nursing program. Her older brother, Joshua Byler ’07, was majoring in elementary education, and her aunt, Lynda Byler Miller ’74, had graduated with a BSN. “I had heard some great things about EMU, and I knew from others that it had a strong nursing program,” Weaver said.
The summer before her senior year at EMU, Weaver completed a nurse externship at Geisinger Lewistown Hospital (then known as Lewistown Hospital) and remembers feeling that she had been adequately prepared by her education. “It felt like I had a solid foundation of knowledge,” she said.
Sometimes, when she’s teaching nursing students during clinicals, she reminisces about her own days as a nursing student. One of her instructors liked to read over a patient’s health history and physical and quiz her on some of the more difficult words. “At the time, I don’t think I enjoyed that,” she joked, “but looking back, it was a really helpful learning tool.”
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