Deborah A. Zbegner, PhD, MSN, BSN (Dean)
Dr. Deborah Zbegner was appointed dean of the Passan School of Nursing at Wilkes University in January 2015. Her strategic leadership fosters growth through innovative distance education programs, undergraduate and graduate curriculum development and faculty/student scholarship.
Dr. Zbegner has more than 20 years of teaching experience at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her background includes didactic and clinical teaching, development of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program, online course development, grant writing and numerous presentations at the international and national level.
Dr. Zbegner served as director of graduate programs and has been responsible for strategic planning, operations, curriculum, faculty loading, student enrollment and retention for the nurse practitioner concentrations and the DNP program. She has 30 years of clinical practice as a nationally board-certified women’s health nurse practitioner. She works in a collaborative physician practice caring for women across the life span, also serving as a clinical preceptor for nurse practitioner students within her practice site. She provides a dynamic learning environment that promotes high-quality patient care from a holistic perspective.
Dr. Zbegner is a member of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Nurse Practitioners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health, the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nursing, and Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She earned her PhD at Widener University, an MSN from the University of Pennsylvania, and her BSN from DeSales University.
