Biography

Nancy Stence Creason was born August 7, 1938, to Murrel Cords Stence and Francis Stence in Elkader, Iowa. The family moved around farms when Stence was young, but they always remained in the Elkader area in northeastern Iowa. Stence attended both country schools and city schools. She was involved in 4-H, speech, and theatre growing up. She graduated from Elkader Central High School in 1956.

Stence knew from a young age that she wanted to go into nursing. She received a merit scholarship from the University of Iowa (then called the State University of Iowa) and earned her BSN in Nursing there in 1960. At the time, three-year diploma programs were common for nursing students, but Stence wanted to attend the four-year degree program. After graduating, she worked at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Iowa City and later moved to Chicago, Illinois, to work as a rehabilitation field nurse.

Stence began graduate school in 1963 at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, after receiving advice from the University of Iowa Dean of Nursing. While at Wayne State University, Stence taught medical surgical nursing. She graduated in December 1964 with an MSN degree. While at Wayne State University, Stence met Gerald “Jerry” Creason. The two were married in 1966 and had two sons, James and Michael Creason. They later divorced. After earning her MSN degree, she worked a nursing instructor at the University of Illinois and University of Michigan.

While working at the University of Michigan as an Assistant Professor, Nancy Creason applied to the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Michigan to work on a doctorate degree. She earned her PhD in Education in 1977. Her first teaching job after earning her PhD was at the University of Utah as an associate professor and associate dean. In 1978, she moved back to Illinois and worked as an associate professor at the Champaign-Urbana campus until 1990. She also served as the Assistant Dean at the College of Nursing from 1985 to 1990. In 1990, she worked as a professor and Dean of the School of Nursing at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (SIUE) in Edwardsville, Illinois. She retired early in 1994 from SIUE.

After her retirement from SIUE, she continued to work as a professor and dean of nursing. She worked at the University of Alaska Anchorage, East Tennessee State University (ETSU), and finally at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. She retired from her position as Dean of the School of Nursing at Millikin University in 2003. Throughout her years working as a nursing professor and dean, she published many articles, worked on various grants, and presented at workshops and conferences.

Outside of her career, Creason was involved in democratic politics, the League of Women Voters, and stayed connected to alumni organizations.

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