Dr. Shannon Smith
Founded in 1869, Claflin University is South Carolina’s oldest Historically Black College/University and the first higher education institution in the state to admit all students regardless of gender, race, religion, or ethnic origin. Dr. Shannon Smith, associate dean of nursing, is the architect of the meteoric success of the Claflin Nursing Department — which has the only accredited bachelor’s and master’s degree nursing programs at an HBCU in South Carolina. Claflin has a Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN) and Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree programs in the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) and Nursing Leadership (NL) tracks. Claflin has 210 graduates from the RN to BSN program that launched in 2016. The MSN program, which started in 2019, has graduated 18 students, 11 of whom were FNPs. One hundred percent of these FNP students passed their national board certification exams, which are required to practice as an FNP in any state.
