UB Nursing Dean Appointed to WNY Health System Board of Directors, State Council

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Mecca S. Cranley, professor and dean of the University at Buffalo School of Nursing, has been named to The Catholic Health System of Western New York's first board of directors.

Cranley also has been appointed a member of the New York State Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Advisory Council.

The Catholic Health System will be one of Western New York's largest non-government employers, consisting of 42 entities including Mercy Hospital and Sisters Hospital in Buffalo, Kenmore Mercy Hospital in the Town of Tonawanda, Our Lady of Victory Hospital in Lackawanna and St. Joseph Hospital in Cheektowaga.

Each hospital plans to retain its name and medical staff, but all will be governed by a 19-member central board of directors.

The New York State Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Advisory Council acts in an advisory capacity to the state Department of Health on the administration of federal block-grant funds for the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant.

A UB faculty member and dean since 1991, Cranley is an expert in nursing care of high-risk pregnancies. She has done research in the areas of maternal-fetal attachment, women's perception of vaginal and cesarean births, family coping patterns in pregnancy and children of diabetic mothers.

A Williamsville resident, Cranley is the co-author of "Obstetric Nursing," and the author of numerous journal and clinical publications.

She has received awards from the Council of High Risk Perinatal Nurses of the American Nurses' Association and the Wisconsin Association for Perinatal Care.

A registered nurse, she received a bachelor's degree in nursing magna cum laude from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Ind., and holds a master's degree in maternal-child nursing and a doctorate in family studies, both from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.