"I never would have imagined myself doing that because I am a nurse to my soul," Wake said.,”Provost Madeline Wake sees herself first and foremost as a nurse. She struggled with her decision to step down as dean of the College of Nursing to become Marquette's first provost in 2002.

"I never would have imagined myself doing that because I am a nurse to my soul," Wake said. "That's just me."

Wake, 65, grew up in Bridgeport, Conn., and received her diploma in nursing from St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Conn. When her family moved to Milwaukee, Wake decided to earn her bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing at Marquette. She earned her Ph.D. in urban education and a minor in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1986.

Wake specialized in diabetes nursing and nursing administration at Columbia St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, which she said sparked her interest in education.

"As both a nurse specialist and a nurse administrator, I did a lot of teaching and I liked the coming together of education and nursing," Wake said.

Wake has always been a pioneer, never afraid to try something new and innovative – and excel at it.

In 1968, Wake was part of a group of physicians and nurses who taught themselves about intensive care and started an intensive care unit at Columbia St. Mary's.

Through her work in intensive care nursing, Wake got involved with the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. She was asked to serve as chairwoman for the Second International Conference on Intensive Care Nursing in The Hague, Netherlands in 1986, and became involved with the international nursing community.

Wake was also an innovator in automated international nursing diagnoses. During the 1990s, she worked with a core group of nurses in Geneva, Switzerland, to develop an international nursing classification system that allowed nurses speaking different languages to understand each other's diagnoses.

Prior to her world travels, Wake became assistant director of the division of continuing education and assistant professor of nursing at Marquette in 1977. In 1989, she was appointed director of continuing education and coordinator of the Office of Outreach. She became dean of the College of Nursing in 1993, a position she held until 2002, when she became provost.

Despite her many awards and honors, Wake said she is most proud of her two children and two grandchildren, who bring her so much joy. Integrity, God and her family are most important to her, Wake said. Professionally, she said she believes in making a difference in the world.

"I'm a Marquette person and making a difference really matters to me," Wake said.

As her career as provost comes to a close Dec. 31, Wake said she has spent time reflecting on her career.

"Through my career I've always had role models and they've always been placed very conveniently time-wise, when I needed them," Wake said.

She said some of her role models in life include a former nursing teacher who wanted to change the way nursing was taught, her mother—who was a nurse—and her daughter.

The biggest challenge of her career, Wake said, was the death of her husband, Jim, who died of a brain tumor in 2004. She said Jim—whom she met while getting her undergraduate degree at Marquette—was always her partner, so it was hard to lose him.

"You think other things are challenges until you come across something like that and then you say 'well the rest of life is … well, it's not that difficult,' " Wake said.

Wake will take a one-year sabbatical and then return to teaching nursing at Marquette, she said. Currently, she is trying to reconnect with her international nursing contacts to continue her work with international nursing education.

Wake will be leaving her position as provost, she said, because she only wanted to fill the position for five years before returning to her love—nursing.

Ellen Rudy, interim dean of the College of Nursing, said Wake's presence will be missed.

"Madeline Wake is an excellent role model for women in academics and her enthusiasm and ability to be creative will be missed," Rudy said.

David Shrock, dean of the College of Business Administration, will serve as interim provost starting in January. He said Wake has set the bar high as provost and has changed the way Marquette approaches academics.

"She is a very passionate, active, enthusiastic person who likes to see things get done," Shrock said.

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