Nursing School Dean Norma Lang will step down as dean, effective this summer.

Under her leadership, the School of Nursing has consistently ranked in the top two nursing schools in the country in the U.S. News & World Report survey of graduate schools. This year the School of Nursing received more National Institutes of Health research dollars than any other private nursing school in the nation.

During her eight-year tenure, Lang, the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing, created a system of centers for nursing research and integrated the research with education and clinical practice. Other schools of nursing modeled their academic-based clinical practices after Penn’s.

The School of Nursing also established a number of interdisciplinary degree programs during Lang’s tenure.

Lang, who said she looks forward to returning to teaching and research, is the developer of the Lang Model, which is used to measure nursing’s impact on patient outcomes.