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Dr. Danny Willis serves as Dean of the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing. In his 20-year academic career, he has served as Dean at Saint Louis University Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing, Associate Dean for  Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing, and Department Chair at Boston College, William F. Connell School of Nursing. His program of research and scholarship primarily focuses on nursing promotion of wellbeing and healing for male survivors in the aftermath of marginalizing and traumatic experiences. His work has been recognized with research and leadership awards, including research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has mentored undergraduate, masters, and PhD students in research from nursing, social work, child and human development, and counseling psychology. He has published widely in nursing and related journals. Topics include qualitative research methods, nursing science and theoretical foundations of the discipline, child abuse survivorship, the aftermath of hate crime, school children being bullied, child witness to violence, mental health, sleep, and healing.

He has served as chair of the American Psychiatric Nursing Association (APNA) Research Council, American Academy of Nursing (AAN) Expert Panel on Theory Guided Practice, and co-chair of the Eastern Nursing Research Society (ENRS) Qualitative Research Interest Group. His publication with colleagues on a central unifying focus for the discipline of nursing ‘facilitating humanization, meaning, choice, quality of life, and healing in living and dying” published in Advances in Nursing Science has garnered national and international recognition for its relevance to nursing.