Rhonda Lanning, DNP, CNM, LCCE, IBCLC, RN

Professor & EMPOWER Co-Director

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Nursing
Campus Box #7460
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460

Rhonda Lanning (she/her) is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing and the Program Director for Birth Partners, the volunteer doula program for UNC Medical Center. Trained as a Certified Nurse Midwife and International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant, Dr. Lanning has worked for more than 30 years in reproductive health care. She is the recipient of numerous teaching and service awards, including the UNC Health Center Nurse Faculty of the Year, the Provost’s Award for Engaged Teaching, and the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at UNC-Chapel Hill. In 2021, she was selected as a Carolina Center for Public Service Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholar.

Dr. Lanning has been the recipient of several grants, including funding to create an interdisciplinary service-learning course focused on training future health professionals as volunteer doulas. She has published and presented her innovative work, including the expansion of a hospital-based volunteer doula program to increase access to supportive maternity care, expanding doula services to the operating room, and incorporating doulas into the education of undergraduate nursing students.

Dr. Lanning enthusiastically teaches and mentors students both within the School of Nursing and across several disciplines at UNC. She currently serves as the chair of the Baccalaureate Executive Committee. A first-generation college graduate, Dr. Lanning completed her BSN and MSN at the University of Pennsylvania and her Doctorate in Nursing Practice at Duke University.