Mimi McKay, Nursing, IU Southeast

A specialist in child/adolescent psychiatric mental health and forensic nursing, McKay works with children outside of her full-time teaching duties at IU Southeast, where she has taught since 1995. She works for Kosair Children’s Hospital’s in-patient child/adolescent psychiatric ward, conducts group psychotherapy for Bingham Child Guidance Center and is assisting Girl Scouts Beyond Bars—a program for daughters of incarcerated women.

In addition, she serves as a mental health nursing consultant to a number of other organizations including: the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center, Home of the Innocents in Louisville, Kosair Children’s Hospital and several Louisville schools.

As part of her research for her doctorate dissertation, McKay worked with Louisville Police’s Gang Squad. Police used a tape she made of a gang member telling why he has joined a gang. Last April, McKay gave a presentation regarding treatment issues of gang members to the International Psychiatric Nurses Association in Miami.

In forensic nursing, she has worked with Anita Hufft, former dean of the IU Southeast nursing program, to implement a forensic nursing concentration on campus. Last year, McKay’s students worked at the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women and the Center for Women and Families in Floyd and Harrison counties in Indiana and in Louisville. McKay’s students also started a rape crisis intervention program in Crawford County.

McKay praised IU Southeast’s reputation for excellence in nursing.

“What lured me here was the rich history for nursing,” said McKay, “in particular, Lillian Yeager, acting dean of nursing, and Coyla Short, lecturer in nursing. I just have the utmost respect for them.”