Lynn Mellenthien

In 1989, Professor Lynn Mellenthien graduated from Marian College with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. She often jokes with her students that this makes her an “old school nurse” because she took her nursing boards (NCLEX) on paper and had to wait six weeks to get the results in the mail.

It took Prof. Mellenthien a long time before deciding to go back to Marian College, rebranded as Marian University, to work on her master’s degree, but it was always something she wanted to do. It wasn’t until her daughters went into high school that she found the time and willingness to complete her Master in Nursing Education in 2009, with a thesis titled “Fatigue in College Freshman.”

After some fellow teachers challenged Prof. Mellenthien to go back to school at American Sentinel University, she was the only one who completed the program and obtained her Doctorate of Nursing Practice in 2020. Her doctoral project looked at the “Correlation of Changes in Growth and Development Content in Core Nursing Courses Based on Results from Mountain Measurements.” 

Prof. Mellenthien looks for ways students can be successful on the NCLEX and what nursing programs can do to assist students in this area. She is the most happy when sharing her knowledge and passion for pediatrics and health assessment with students.

In the last 15 years, Prof. Mellenthien has taught a wide range of healthcare courses, including didactic (classroom), lab sections, clinical experiences, and clinical placements.

As her parents age, it has become important for Prof. Mellenthien to help create a future generation of nurses that will care for them and herself. She thinks this is why she is so excited to be able to share her passion and teach nursing to the next generation of nurses.

Married to her husband, Brad, a retired police officer, for 32+ years, the couple have two beautiful daughters named Ashley and Megan. Prof. Mellenthien’s daughters will tell you that her true favorite child is her dog, Moose, a four-year-old boxer and Rhodesian ridgeback mix who thinks everyone was put on this earth to play ball with him.

In Prof. Mellenthien’s free time, she loves to spend time with family, take vacations to warm places, and read books. She is a firm believer that pizza is a food group and eats it as often as she can. Her favorite stress-relief activity is baking.

Hear from Prof. Mellenthien: Why Nursing?

“I enjoy being a nurse, as there are so many different areas you can work in and a variety of shifts to meet your needs and preferences. I love to teach when a student has the ‘a-ha’ moment, when they realize that they can do what they have been taught and the pieces all seem to suddenly fit together.”

• D.N.P. in Education Leadership — American Sentinel University
• M.S.N. — Marian University
• B.S.N. — Marian College

• NSG 2010: Pathophysiologic Concepts for Nursing Practice
• NSG 2015: Fundamental Core Concepts for Nursing Practice

• Herzing Educator of the Year 2017