Dr. Marilyn Rantz has been affiliated with the MU Sinclair School of Nursing since 1992. She held the named position of University Hospital Professor of Nursing, has a joint appointment in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, was designated Helen E. Nahm Chair 2008-2015, and was awarded the MU Curators’ Professor title in 2010. In 2012, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine), and is the only individual to be twice named as an Edge Runner by the American Academy of Nursing for two different innovations: 2008 for Aging in Place and TigerPlace and 2012 for the Quality Improvement Program for Missouri (QIPMO).

Dr. Rantz has sustained a research program to improve quality of care of elderly and her innovative work in nursing home quality spans 40 years, in practice and a leading researcher. She is an international expert in quality measurement in nursing homes. In 2012 and 2016, she secured $14.8 million and $19.8 million grants from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for their Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations among Nursing Facility Residents – Phase 1 and Phase 2; two of the largest received across all MU campuses. In total, Dr. Rantz and her multidisciplinary research teams have garnered over $108 million in funds to support work measuring effectiveness of nurse care coordination, cutting edge research in long-term care, new delivery models of care for older adults, and technology development to enhance aging in place of community-dwelling elders. In fall 2020, she was inducted as a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing.