معرفی
Heide Cygan serves as Associate Professor and Director of both the Advanced Public Health Nursing Program and Transformative Leadership: Population Health Program at Rush University College of Nursing. Her primary appointment is in the Department of Community, Systems and Mental Health Nursing where she maintains an active research and leadership profile focused on public health nursing innovation. She is based at 600 S. Paulina St., Suite 1035A, Chicago, IL 60612 with contact phone (312) 942-2008 and email heide_cygan@rush.edu.
Dr. Cygan's research centers on public health nursing practice transformation with particular emphasis on school nursing, planetary health integration, and health equity initiatives. Her work spans childhood obesity management, LGBTQ+ adolescent health, academic-practice partnerships, and climate change impacts on health systems. She actively develops frameworks for 21st-century school nursing practice and has pioneered digital health education approaches through YouTube-based community programming. Her scholarship demonstrates consistent productivity with publications spanning 2014-2025, showing increased focus on planetary health and systems transformation in recent years.
Her scientific contributions include developing operational models for nursing academic-practice partnerships, creating school health policy implementation tools, and advancing planetary health curriculum frameworks. Notable work includes the Delphi study on school health policy implementation and the development of digital toolkits for pregnant and parenting youth. Her research has been cited across multiple platforms including Mendeley and X (formerly Twitter), with several publications generating significant altmetric attention.
Dr. Cygan demonstrates strong leadership in nursing education through her program directorship and scholarship on DNP student publication coaching. She has been instrumental in transitioning public health nursing education during the COVID-19 pandemic and developing virtual learning models. Her collaborative work spans multiple institutions with frequent co-authorship with colleagues like Mallory Bejster, Virginia Reising, and Melissa Kalensky. Current projects indicate growing focus on climate change funding mechanisms and planetary health education integration across health professions.
