Dr. Lora Lacey-Haun has been with UMKC for approximately 33 years. She has done classroom teaching, clinical teaching, administrative work, and was Dean in the School of Nursing and Health Studies until her retirement in 2012. She worked as Associate Dean in the School of Graduate Studies in the early 2000s, and returned this spring to help with the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program and general graduate student support, in the absence of Dr. Friend, who is working with the Provost’s Office. Dr. Lacey-Haun could not choose a singular position as her favorite at UMKC.
“Every position I have held has had many positive and rewarding aspects,” she said. “I really enjoyed my classroom teaching because I worked directly with students and really got to know the students as professionals, and as people. I especially enjoyed getting to know the children of my students. Teaching clinical courses was great because it kept me grounded in my profession and current in my clinical practice. I enjoyed my administrative positions because I got to focus on an aspect of higher education that you don’t see as a faculty member. Dean in the School of Nursing and Health Studies was rewarding because I met and interacted with so many people in the University and in the community. I am enjoying my positon here in SGS because I get to use the administrative skills I have developed over my career, I get to interact directly with faculty and students and I work with a wonderful staff.”
Dr. Lacey-Haun said she especially enjoyed her nurse practitioner position at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
“I coordinated a clinic for NICU graduates who were born weighing less than 2 ½ pounds,” she said. “I got to watch these tiny newborns grow into toddlers and preschoolers. I got to watch them become happy little children and I got to know their parents. Their parents were so pleased and excited when their babies finally got to go home. It was extremely rewarding to know our health care team had helped these families. I think of them often and wonder how those children are doing today as young adults.”
Her first opportunity to work at UMKC came when the undergraduate nursing program was being developed. She came in as an Assistant Professor.
“I can’t tell you when that was because you will think I’m not telling the truth because I just can’t be that old,” she said. “I really never planned to stay at UMKC or in Kansas City for so many years but I fell in love with the University and the city. So here I am.”
If she had not stayed in education and at UMKC, Dr. Lacey-Haun would have returned to her clinical practice and worked at Children’s Mercy Hospital.
“I did a lot of work there for about 10 or 15 years in clinical practice and in research,” she said. “CMH is a wonderful health care facility and children and families receive some of the best care available in the country.”
Dr. Lacey-Haun sees UMKC as a good choice for graduate studies because it is an urban-serving institution that offers a diverse and state-of-the-art education, along with committed faculty members and opportunities for working with the community. Her favorite aspect of her job is working with students.
“Graduate students are the most motivated, self-directed, creative group I have had the pleasure of working with in my 35+ years of working in higher education,” she said. “Watching what students can accomplish while going to school, working and raising a family is so inspiring. Anything I can do to be a part of their educational process is very exciting to me.”
Of all her accomplishments, Dr. Lacey-Haun sees her proudest as her family.
“The most wonderful accomplishment of my life has been raising 5 children and seeing them become responsible professionals and loving parents and adults,” she said. “Also, I have delighted in watching my 6 grandchildren become beautiful, fun-loving happy children