Summary
Sheryl Bennett, DNP, RN, is an assistant professor at the Orvis School of Nursing, University of Nevada, Reno, where she leads the Nurse Educator and Clinical Nurse Leader graduate tracks at the master's and doctoral levels, preparing the faculty and clinical leaders who teach and lead Nevada's nursing workforce. She is the founding lead of the Nevada Nursing Workforce Center, an Orvis Initiative, which develops the data and statewide partnerships needed to understand Nevada's nursing workforce supply, demand, and distribution, and the evidence behind Nevada's nursing shortage. As a nationally certified school nurse, she studies school nursing and school health services, and creates opportunities for nursing students to learn population health through hands-on practice in schools and communities.
Before entering nursing, Dr. Bennett spent over a decade in healthcare and technology, leading quality improvement initiatives and building financial analysis and decision support systems. She applies that experience to the economics of nursing workforce policy and to sustainable models of school health care delivery.
With over a decade of professional nursing experience in critical care, hospice and school nursing, Dr. Bennett is dedicated to supporting students in their journey within nursing as a caring science and fostering a resilient nursing workforce.
Scholarly interests
- Nursing workforce supply, demand, and distribution
- Nursing workforce development and policy
- School nursing and school health services
- Health information exchange and interoperability
- Language access and culturally congruent nursing care
- Nursing education
- Health policy and finance
Current projects
Nevada Nursing Workforce Center, an Orvis Initiative. Founding Lead. Developing the data, partnerships and analytic capacity to describe Nevada's nursing workforce supply, demand and distribution. Its first product is the Nevada Nurse Workforce Atlas, a county-level mapping of the state's licensed nursing supply covering all sixteen Nevada counties and Carson City, developed with the support of the Nevada State Board of Nursing.
School Health Champions Project. Principal Investigator. Preparing nearly 200 undergraduate nursing students each year to deliver evidence-based health screenings in K-12 schools, giving them hands-on population health practice while extending screening capacity to schools that have none. Conducted in partnership with local and state educational agencies and BHworks, the project's electronic health record platform, which establishes a structured, reportable record of school health screenings and supports sustainable Medicaid billing pathways. Supported by a Renown Health Better Together Grant and an Anthem Technology Grant.
NOURISH Nevada Children. Co-Investigator. Nutritional screening for students in rural Nevada school districts, integrated with school health screenings. The electronic health platform captures screening data and generates a referral reporting system connecting identified students to resources within Nevada's 4-H infrastructure. Led by University of Nevada, Reno Extension in partnership with the Orvis School of Nursing.
Select courses taught
- NURS 475: Population Health Theory
- NURS 744: Leadership Development and Care Management
- NURS 747: Care Management in the Health Care Micro-System
- NURS 759: Planning Strategies for Care of Specialized Populations
- NURS 780: Didactic Nursing Education
- NURS 781: Online Nursing Education
- NURS 782: Clinical Nursing Education
- NURS 783: Simulation Nursing Education
- NURS 788: DNP Project
Select publications
Kaskoun, J., McCabe, E., Bennett, S., Grunin, L., & Squires, A. (in press). Lost in translation: A qualitative study into U.S. school nurses' perspectives on language barriers and student health. The Journal of School Nursing.
Baker, C., & Bennett, S. (2026). School nursing and the Rural Health Transformation Program [Opinion]. The Journal of School Nursing, 42(3).
Baker, C., & Bennett, S. (2026). Health information exchange implications for school nursing: An integrative review. The Journal of School Nursing, 42(1).
Bennett, S., Maughan, E. D., DeCato, S., Poland, E., & Jameson, B. E. (2025). Exploring innovative US school health delivery models: A narrative review. The Journal of School Nursing, 41(1), 91-103.
McCabe, E. M., Bennett, S., Lowrey, K. M., & Squires, A. (2025). Language barriers in school health: Addressing health equity in the U.S. educational system. The Journal of School Nursing, 41(3), 398-403.
McCabe, E. M., Best, N., Bennett, S., & Jameson, B. (2024). Expanding child health screenings through school-community partnerships. American Journal of Nursing.
McCabe, E. M., Kaskoun, J., Bennett, S., Meadows-Oliver, M., & Schroeder, K. (2024). Addressing school connectedness, belonging, and culturally appropriate care for newly immigrated students and families. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 38(2), 233-239.
Bennett, S., & Watts, T. (2024). School nurses' language needs when caring for students from limited English proficiency households. The Journal of School Nursing, 40(4), 446-451.
Bennett, S., McCabe, E. M., & Squires, A. P. (2023).Language access for families with limited English proficiency: Why does it matter? NASN School Nurse, 38(6), 320-327.
Select presentations and invited talks
Bennett, S., & Buell, K. (2026, June 4-6). School Health Champions [Podium presentation]. Association of Community Health Nursing Educators (ACHNE) Annual Institute, Spokane, WA.
Bennett, S., & Ferdowsali, J. (2026, February 11). Mae Orvis Symposium [Guest appearance]. FilipiNARS: A PNANV Podcast, hosted by D. Bauer. PHLV Radio.
Bennett, S., & Buell, K. T. (2025, December). Building population health competency: A Healthy People 2030 class project for practice-ready BSN education [Poster presentation]. AACN Transform 2025 Conference, Anaheim, CA.
Bennett, S., & Baker, C. (2024, June). Electronic health information exchange: Implications for school nurses [Poster presentation]. National Association of School Nurses Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
McCabe, E. M., Kaskoun, J., Bennett, S., Meadows-Oliver, M., & Schroeder, K. (2024, June). Creating school connectedness and belonging for newly immigrated students: Clinical pearls for culturally appropriate care [Workgroup session]. National Association of School Nurses Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
Bennett, S. (2023, November 7). Strategies for addressing challenges related to student anxiety, technology and AI impact, and immigrant families [Invited presentation]. Northeastern University School Health Academy Annual Election Day Conference.
Bennett, S., McCabe, E. M., & Squires, A. P. (2023, November). Language access for families with limited English proficiency: Why does it matter? [Audio podcast interview]. Hosted by C. Galemore. Sage Publishing.
Education
- Doctor in Nursing Practice in Population Health from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Post Graduate Certificate in Nursing Education from Orvis School of Nursing, University of Nevada, Reno
- Master’s Science of Nursing, Clinical Nurse Leader track from Orvis School of Nursing, University of Nevada, Reno
- Bachelor’s in Nursing Science from Orvis School of Nursing, University of Nevada, Reno
- Associate Degree in Nursing from Gateway Community College
- Bachelor’s in Business Administration from University of Hawai’i Hilo, emphasis in Accounting & Economics