Education
Brenda S. Lessen Knoll received a B.S.N. at Illinois Wesleyan University in 1989. In 1995 she earned her M.S. as a Community Nurse Specialist with a concentration in Maternal Child Nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2008 she earned a Ph.D. in neonatal science and research from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Biography
Dr. Knoll is the author/founder of the Premature Infant Oral Motor Intervention (PIOMI) and has an active speaking schedule for neonatal providers nationally and internationally. She has an extensive publication record, an ongoing record of international research, and continues to consult for medical centers in the research and development of oral motor protocols for their Neonatal Intensive Care Units worldwide. She maintains service on multiple dissertation committees for neonatal feeding research, and reviews for several peer reviewed scientific journals. Dr. Knoll has been tenured at IWU since 2015.
Prior to joining the faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University in 2002, Dr. Lessen Knoll taught at Mennonite College of Nursing at ISU in Normal, preceded by part time faculty positions at the Methodist College of Nursing in Peoria and Richland Community College in Decatur. As a registered professional nurse, she has worked in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, followed by the position of Nursing Manager of Pediatrics and later Director of Clinical Education at Proctor Hospital in Peoria, while maintaining part time RN positions in OB, Pediatrics and Mother-Baby Home Health at BroMenn Regional Medical Center in Bloomington.
Honors & Memberships
Dr. Lessen Knoll is a member of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses, the Association of Women’s Health Obstetrical and Neonatal Nursing, the Academy of Neonatal Nurses, Sigma Theta Tau International, and the International Orem Society. She received an Illinois Board of Higher Education Nurse Educator Fellowship in 2012. Following her early service in the Public Health sectors (Advancing Public Health Nursing Education State Advisory Board, the McLean County Health Department Community Health Assessment Committee, Head Start Health Advisory Committee, and as a public health mentor with the American Public Health Association National Mentoring Program), she transitioned to service for the Feeding Practice Council at the Children’s Hospital of Illinois, the Illinois NICU Developmental Care Consortium at Lurie Children’s Hospital, and is a founding member of Women Empowered at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, where she also served as member, then Chair, of the OSF Community Advisory Board.