Cheryl Jones, PhD, RN, FAAN

Sarah Frances Russell Distinguished Professor; and Director of the Hillman Scholars Program

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Nursing
Campus Box #7460
Administrative Office Building
104 Airport Drive
Office: 2704

ITS Manning
211 Manning Drive
Office: 4509
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460

Cheryl is the Sarah Frances Russell Distinguished Professor of nursing and Director of the Hillman Scholars Program in Nursing Innovation in the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). She is also a Research Fellow at UNC’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research in the Health Workforce Program.

Dr. Jones’ research is aimed at uncovering knowledge about the health workforce, particularly the nursing workforce, and how changes in the workforce impact the organization, delivery, and financing of care. She is a recognized leader in nursing health services research, having led studies examining the nursing workforce at micro- and macro-levels. Findings from her research have informed the development of efforts to improve the nursing work environment, enhance nurse executive practice, and spur the creation of policies to strengthen nursing workforce capacity. One of Cheryl’s most recognized contributions has been the development, testing, and refinement of a method to measure nurse turnover costs, the Nurse Turnover Cost Calculation Methodology (NTCCM), which has been used both within and outside of nursing in the U.S. and globally to address the recurring and vexing problem of health professionals turnover.

Cheryl previously served in a special appointment as Senior Health Services Researcher at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for two years, where she worked on nursing workforce-related research initiatives at organizational and public policy levels. She has taught health economics, policy, innovation, implementation science, and management at undergraduate and graduate levels, and is co-author (with Finkler, Kovner, and others) of one of the most highly regarded financial management texts for nurse and healthcare leaders, Financial Management for Nurse Managers and Executives, now in its 5th edition. Cheryl was a Primary Care Policy Fellow in the U.S. Public Health Service in 1999, inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2005, and inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Research Hall of Fame in 2024.