Joan M. Stanley, PhD, RN, CRNP, was appointed director of education policy of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in 1994. Dr. Stanley has served as member of the AACN's Task Force of Essentials of Master's Education for Advanced Practice Nurses, the Task Force on Essentials of Baccalaureate Nursing Education, the Task Force on the Essential Clinical Resources for Nursing's Academic Mission, and the Task Force on Distance Technology and Nursing Education. She has served as AACN's representative to a number of advanced practice nursing projects, including the American Nurses Association Task Force on the Scope and Standards for Advanced Practice Nursing, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Advisory Committee for the FNP Pharmacology Curriculum Project, and the NLN/NONPF Task Force on Evaluation Criteria for NP Program Approval.

Dr. Stanley currently serves as project director for AACN's Women's Health Baccalaureate Nursing Curriculum Project. The project is being conducted in collaboration with five federal agencies that support women's health care delivery and research. The purpose of the project is to describe women's health content in bachelor's-degree nursing education programs, cite best practices, and recommend strategies for strengthening women's health perspectives in preparing new baccalaureate nurses.

Since 1991, Dr. Stanley also has served as project director for two contracts awarded to AACN by the National Health Service Corps. The purpose of the contracts is to establish and maintain a national nurse practitioner faculty advocate network and a certified nurse-midwifery faculty advocate network that link the NHSC and its programs, Community and Migrant Health Centers, and the schools that have one or more graduate nurse practitioner programs or a certified nurse-midwifery program. Dr. Stanley has been appointed to the Technical Advisory Group on the Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the National Health Service Corps.

Dr. Stanley maintains a practice as an adult nurse practitioner at the University of Maryland Hospital Faculty Practice Office. From 1992 - 1997 she served as editor of Nurse Practitioner World News, formerly known as NP News.

Prior to joining AACN, Dr. Stanley was assistant professor at the School of Nursing at the University of Maryland and associate director of Primary Care Nursing Services at the University of Maryland Hospital.

Dr. Stanley received her Bachelor of Science in nursing from Duke University, Master of Science from the University of Maryland at Baltimore, and her doctorate in higher education policy and organization from the University of Maryland at College Park.