Merit Health nursing director, GI Associates staff nurse join MC School of Nursing faculty

Experienced clinical nurses Wendi Lofton McLendon, left, and Tracy Lindsay bolster the MC School of Nursing faculty.

A pair of skilled clinical nurses with more than four decades of professional experience combined have joined the School of Nursing faculty at Mississippi College.

Tracy M, Lindsay, director of women’s services and director of hospital education for Merit Health System in Jackson, and Wendi Lofton McLendon, staff nurse and sedation float nurse at the GI Associates and Endoscopy Center in Flowood, each serve as instructors in the School of Nursing at MC.

An honors graduate of Mississippi College, Lindsay obtaining her B.S.N. from the MC School of Nursing and her M.S.N. from the School of Nursing at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. After joining Merit Health System, she worked her way through the ranks, serving as weekend R.N. supervisor at the Woodland Skilled Nursing Facility in Clinton, director of nursing at Highland Home Skilled Nursing in Ridgeland, branch educator and quality manager at Gentiva Hospice in Flowood, and regional nurse consultant/educator at VA Skilled Nursing Facilities of Mississippi.

She obtained academic experience as nursing program instructor at Hinds Community College from 2000-01 and from 2017-19, at Mississippi College from 2001-02, and at the UMMC School of Nursing from 2002-03.

Selected to the University of Mississippi chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society, Lindsay is listed in Who’s Who Among Executive and Professional Women in Nursing and Healthcare.

Upon receiving her B.S.N. from the Mississippi University for Women, McLendon joined St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson as a staff nurse and charge nurse. She became clinic nurse to Dr. Lisa Gibson-McKee, ObGyn, at the Jackson Healthcare for Women in Flowood, and has been with GI Associates since 2015.

McLendon obtained her M.S.N. summa cum laude from the UMMC School of Nursing. She has served as an adjunct faculty member and clinical instructor at the MC School of Nursing since January 2023.

Initiated into Phi Kappa Phi and the Theta Beta Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau, she is an active member of the National League for Nursing, the American Nurses Association and the Mississippi Nurses Association. She serves as an auditor on the Hand Hygiene and PPE OSHA Audit Committee and as a chart reviewer on the HPI/Physical Exam Chart Review Committee for the Group on Institutional Advancement.