Professor Beverly O’Connell is the Dean of the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She has more than 20 years’ experience teaching and researching in the areas of falls prevention, care of the older person, continence care, risk management and carer needs. She is committed to improving patient care through the development of clinical evidence-based practice leaders and evidence-based patient care. Previously, she held the positions of:  Inaugural Chair in Nursing at Deakin – Southern Health Nursing Research Centre; Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Health at Deakin, Associate Head (Research) with Deakin’s School of Nursing and Midwifery; Director of the Quality and Risk Management in Clinical and Aged Care research cluster; Chair in Nursing at Cabrini Health and Deakin University; Nursing Research Director at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital; and Director, Centre for Nursing Research and Development at Curtin University.

She has extensive experience as chief investigator of multidisciplinary research projects, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Track record to date includes:

• In excess of 60 successful grant applications attracting a more than 3.4 million dollars in funding from local, state and Commonwealth sources.
• More than 100 publications in refereed journals, books, and book chapters.
• Ninety-five presentations at international, national, and local conferences and professional seminars.
• Invited as a consultant by National Continence Foundation and the Department of Health and Ageing to sit on advisory panels and comment on issues related to continence. 
• Member of the National Quality and Safety Council, Falls Prevention Guidelines Advisory Committee.
• Member of the Royal College of Nursing Inaugural Advisory Council.

Professor O’Connell has reviewed grants for:

• National Health and Medical Research Council
• Australian Research Council
• German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
• Royal College of Nursing
• Queensland Nursing Council Grants Scheme

On the editorial board for the journal Contemporary Nurse and the Australian & New Zealand Continence Journal, she reviews journal articles for the following journals:

• Journal of Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing
• Australian Health Review
• Australasian Journal of Ageing 
• Journal of Clinical Nursing