Dr. Lenora Marcellus
Professor and Director
School of Nursing
- Contact:
- Office: HSD B208 nursingdirector@uvic.ca 250-721-7953
- Credentials:
- RN, BSN, MN, PhD
- Area(s) of expertise:
- Neonatal nursing; perinatal substance use; leadership; nursing education
Biography
Lenora joined the University of Victoria in 2009 after a 25-year career in professional nursing practice, administrative and policy positions. Lenora’s research and scholarship focuses on supporting pregnant and newly parenting people and their families experiencing multiple adversities during their transition to parenting. She has a focus on the issue of substance use during pregnancy, which incorporates developing integrated community-based services for families, supporting infants experiencing Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal after birth and supporting foster care providers who care for this population. A second specific focus is the support of young, first time, low-income mothers.
Lenora’s undergraduate teaching focuses on community health, leadership, and research. Her graduate level teaching focuses on advanced practice leadership and research methods. Lenora is the current Director of the School of Nursing.
Chronic pain and women’s health: Developing and scaling out sex and gender information for nursing students and educators in BC (2024). Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. Poole, N., Marcellus, L., Humble, R., & Wolfson, L. $19,946.
Recharging the charge nurse: The first step in developing the next generation of nurse leaders (2024). Island Health KPMG Seed Grant Program. Marcellus, L. (PI), Soltys, K. (Co-PI), Bergen, E., Duncan, J., Macdonald, A., Tripple, A., & Newton, L. $15,000
Healthy workforce and health systems transformation: The TRUST initiative (2023). SWITCH BC with NNPBC. Newton, L. & Marcellus, L. $175,000.
Development of a primary health care elective for Year 4 Baccalaureate Science in Nursing students (2023). University of Victoria Learning and Teaching Support and Innovation Course Design Grant. Marcellus, L. (PI), Daly, K., Bertoni, K., Burgess, J., Wozniak, C., Ernst, K. $7464.00
Advancing anti-racism in nursing education: Knowledge mobilization of emerging evidence and strategies (2023). Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Café Scientifique Grant. Slemon, A. (PI), Dordunoo, D., Dhari, S., Daly, K., Aubrey, G., Christie, T., Dompierre, K., Marcellus, L. Drewry, T., Epp, H., Hubert, J., Jap, J., Johnson, A., McBride, C. $5,996.
Infant sleep ecology in 2SLGBTQ+ families (2022). University of Victoria Faculty of Human and Social Development Internal Grant. Ou, C. (PI), Marcellus, L., Halpern-Zisman, L., & Lachowsky, N. $5,000.
Reclaiming and recovering Indigenous knowledge in graduate nursing education: Intergenerational learning with communities (2022). Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Bourque Bearskin L. (PI), Moar, D., D’Souza, M., Palmer, B, Seymour C., Kurtz D., Ryan M., Bryant, L., Chakanyuka C., Duncan S., Fraser J., Hamel H., Hunter N., Johnson S., Kelly D., Kennedy A., Marcellus L., Padley M., Srivastava R., Sturm J., Tarrant M., Weber-Pillwax,C., Wuetherick, B. $684,676 (2022-2026).
NURS 430: Nursing Leadership
NURS 519: Leadership for Health Systems
NURS 621: Doctoral Seminar
NURS 690: Directed Studies, Grounded Theory Methodology
https://scholar.google.ca/citations?hl=en&user=CsfBEJAAAAAJ
Marcellus, L., Jack, S., MacKinnon, K., Hill, M., Gonzalez, A., Campbell, K., Catherine, N., MacMillan, H., Tonmyr, L., Van Borek, N. & Varcoe, C. (2025). Strategies to engage and retain pregnant individuals and young mothers in the Nurse-Family Partnership Program (Canada): An interpretive descriptive study. Child Abuse and Neglect, 167, 107537.
Marcellus, L. (2025). Perioperative clinical courses for prelicensure nursing students: A scoping review. AORN Journal, 122(1), 10-19.
Marcellus, L. & Amundsen, M. (2023). Developing an equity mindset: How neonatal nurses can impact health outcomes by reducing disparities. Neonatal Network, 42(4), 182-191.
Marcellus, L., Cleveland, L., Maguire, D., Blythe, S., Buus-Frank, M., & McQueen, K. (2022). Developments in nursing practice to address substance use in the perinatal period. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing, 51(4), 361-376.
Marcellus, L., Pauly, B., Martin, W., Revai, T., Easton, K. & MacDonald, M. (2022). Navigating conflicting value systems: A grounded theory pf the process of public health equity work in the context of mental health promotion and prevention of harms of substance use. BMC Public Health, 22, Article number 210.