Nursing Chair Monique Alston’s Prescription for Growth Revives the Program’s Impact

When Monique Alston arrived at Bowie State University in summer 2025, the Department of Nursing was admitting about 100 students a year. By spring 2026, that number had nearly tripled for a single incoming cohort. This fall, the department expects to welcome double the number of new students who have completed their prerequisites as compared to previous years. The department achieved this higher enrollment while winning every grant it applied for, launching Maryland's only Ph.D. program in nursing education, and posting a 100% first-attempt NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses) pass rate for its December graduates.

For Alston, who chairs the department within the College of Professional Studies, her turnaround started with a simple question: why weren't more students getting in?

"There are many students out here who want to be nurses."

She discovered that the barrier to entry wasn't cost, since Bowie State is one of the more affordable options in the region. Rather, it was the admissions process itself, a two-step system that required students to first be admitted to the university, then separately approved for enrollment in the nursing program. Working with the university's pre-nursing advisers, Alston's team streamlined that path. Her approach worked: while fall 2025's incoming cohort was 28 students, spring 2026's cohort was 63.

Amy Creamer felt that shift firsthand. A junior pursuing nursing as a second career after 25 years as a personal trainer and nutritionist, Creamer transferred in with two prior degrees. She found the program's structure and faculty unlike anything she'd experienced before.

"These professors are like the Ivy League of nursing. Everyone is just so wonderful, so helpful, so accommodating. They all want us to succeed."

Growing the pipeline meant growing the resources behind it, and that meant grant funding. Maryland is the only state that requires hospitals to direct a share of their revenue back into nursing education through the Health Care Cost Review Commission's Nurse Support Program. Drawing on years of grant-writing experience from her previous role at Montgomery College, Alston applied for financial support in five separate categories in her first year at Bowie State.

"It's optimistic, it's bold, but we're Bowie Bold, so why not?"

It worked. All five proposals were funded, bringing in a combined total in the millions, plus additional Title III funding to update the department's Simulation Resource Center, add staff and support pre-nursing students working through prerequisite math, English and science courses. The money also funded faculty professional development and team-building, and student tutoring and coaching support.

That investment in people resonates deeply into the classroom culture. Alston has watched how students coming through nursing programs have shifted as learners in the years since the pandemic disrupted their early education, and she has pushed faculty to shift with them: less lectures, and more hands-on case work and active learning. She brought in team training and introduced a mantra borrowed from the movie: Drumline:" One Band, One Sound.

The growth and impact of Alston's leadership isn't limited to undergraduates. Bowie State's Ph.D. in nursing education, the only one of its kind in Maryland, is set to welcome its first cohort this fall, with scholarship funding covering tuition, fees and research support for as many as 15 students. Unlike a clinical doctorate, the program allows students to move directly from a bachelor's degree into doctoral study, with a goal of finishing in three years. An RN-to-BSN program, dormant for several years, is relaunching in January 2027 in a hybrid format designed for working nurses and the department's international student population.

Behind the numbers is a network of support that Alston is quick to credit: pre-nursing advisers managing hundreds of students before they ever reach a nursing course; faculty advisers meeting with students each semester; and an Advisory Board of hospital and community college partners that meets twice a year, beyond what accreditation requires. Local hospitals and military recruiters now come to campus directly, connecting students to jobs. In some cases, students commission as Army nurses before they graduate.

She is also candid about what made the past year possible: administrative backing, from the department up through university leadership, that never turned down a request. When Bowie State University President Aminta H. Breaux emailed her directly to thank her for the department's work, Alston said it caught her off guard. "In the midst of everything she has to contend with, to have her support is quite an honor."

During National Nurses Week in May 2027, the department will host its first "Stethoscope and Sneaker Ball," as a lively fundraiser and celebration for students and the broader nursing community. It's a fitting bookend to a year Alston describes as just the beginning.

"I'm afraid of what might happen if I relax!"

For prospective students weighing their educational options, her pitch is simple: come see the campus and discover what a program committed to everyone's success looks like up close.

It's Alston's authentic pitch built on a year of results, and it's Bowie Bold.