What the NLN's New Treasurer Means for Nurse Administrators

A bedside manager answers to a unit budget. A nurse administrator who sits on a national board answers to something larger: the rules that shape every program budget downstream. On October 2, 2026, the University of Maine announced that nursing professor Colleen Marzilli was elected treasurer of the National League for Nursing's Board of Governors for 2026-29.

That matters if you manage tuition-linked budgets, accreditation cycles, or the pipeline that feeds your staffing. Dues, certification expectations, and policy priorities are set by people who volunteered to be in the room.

Most administrators never consider that route, yet the seats are filled by working nurses with an MSN and a visible leadership record.

What the National League for Nursing Does and Why Administrators Should Care

The National League for Nursing is the oldest nursing organization in the United States, founded in 1893, and the first national nursing association in the country. Today it represents nearly 45,000 individual members and more than 1,000 institutional members, with member programs spanning practical nursing through doctoral preparation. The NLN is education-centered rather than bedside-practice-focused, which means the administrators who get the most from it tend to be academic deans, program directors, faculty development leads, and clinical education coordinators , positions within the broader nurse administrator role and a clear fit for non-bedside nursing jobs.

Five Activity Areas That Touch Administrative Work

The NLN's work falls into five areas that map directly onto the daily concerns of nurse administrators:

• Professional development: Continuing education and leadership programming help faculty and staff developers meet credentialing and skill-building needs without reinventing internal training.
• Nurse educator certification: The Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) and Certified Nurse Educator Clinical (CNEcl) credentials¹ give hiring committees a recognized benchmark for faculty qualifications and support promotion pathways.
• Research: NLN-supported research informs evidence-based curriculum design, program evaluation, and administrative decision-making.
• Assessment services: Testing and evaluation tools supply outcomes data that accreditation reviewers and budget planners rely on.
• Public policy advocacy: The NLN shapes federal and state policy affecting nursing education funding, scope, and workforce development.

Membership Categories and What They Cost

Individual membership includes Full ($175 per year or $325 for two years), Graduate Student ($80 per year), and Retired ($100 per year or $180 for two years). Individual dues renew on an anniversary-date cycle. Institutional School of Nursing membership is available to any institution offering a nursing program, and faculty at those schools receive full individual benefits at no additional charge. The published materials reviewed do not list a separate School of Nursing fee. Associate membership, open to nursing associations, health care agencies, and other organizations, is $625 annually for the primary site plus $230 for each additional site, billed on a calendar-year cycle.

The 2026 NLN Treasurer Election: What Colleen Marzilli's 2026–29 Term Signals for Program Budgets

Membership organizations rarely draw administrator attention until dues, certification fees, or accreditation expectations shift, which is exactly why a treasurer election is worth a closer look.

What the Source Confirms

On October 2, 2026, the University of Maine announced that Colleen Marzilli, a professor of nursing at the university, was elected treasurer of the National League for Nursing Board of Governors for the 2026, 29 term. UMaine says she will help guide the organization's financial stewardship and governance as it advances nursing education. The NLN describes her as bringing executive experience in strategic planning, fiscal stewardship, and advancing nursing education, and notes she succeeds Mark Hand, PhD, RN, CNE. Her prior roles include president, treasurer, and secretary positions within Sigma Theta Tau and the Texas Nurses Association, plus leadership at the University of Texas at Tyler. She holds preparation in both nursing and business administration, a blend that connects with the MSN-MBA Dual Degree for Nurse Administrators path.

Our Read for Administrators

Here is where the source stops and interpretation begins: the announcements confirm the role and her background, but they do not state any policy positions or pricing decisions. A treasurer at a membership body generally oversees budgets, financial reporting, and the health of revenue streams like dues, certification exams, and assessment services. We will not predict what the board will do. These are simply things to watch:

• Whether institutional dues schedules change as the board reviews its finances.
• Whether nurse educator certification and assessment pricing shift for faculty you sponsor.
• Whether accreditation-related expectations carry new cost implications for your Nursing Administration & Leadership Programs.

Three Planning Actions

• Audit your NLN line items: Pull the NLN-related costs in your education or faculty-development budget so a mid-year change does not surprise you.
• Track the financial reports: Watch board communications and annual-meeting financial summaries for signals on dues and fee direction.
• Confirm certification costs: Verify current nurse educator certification pricing before committing faculty cohorts for the next cycle.

How NLN Governance Works: Board, Committees and Advocacy Roles Open to Administrators

The NLN Board of Governors sits at the center. It is made up of officers (president, president-elect, treasurer and secretary), member governors and public governors, all elected at large by the membership. Governors then serve on standing committees appointed by the Board, and the NLN president can assign them to task groups and ad hoc groups as needs arise. Policy work, including the NLN Public Policy Agenda, runs through volunteer committees. The table below shows each layer and how realistic it is for an MSN-prepared administrator.

A Step-By-Step Path From Unit or Campus Leadership to National Service

National boards rarely recruit strangers. Most officers climb a visible ladder, and nursing leadership and management coursework maps onto each rung. People who already hold a staff or faculty leadership title are generally the easiest to slot into volunteer roles, so a formal title helps early on.

Stage 1: Build Institutional Visibility

Lead a committee, chair a policy review, or present budget outcomes to your executive team. Health policy analysis and organizational leadership coursework in an MSN in Nursing Leadership apply directly here. Nominating tip: keep a one-page leadership bio current, with titles, scope of responsibility and two or three measurable results.

Stage 2: Join as an Individual Member

Individual membership in the National League for Nursing gives you access to its professional development, networks and calls for volunteers. Apply what you learned in healthcare finance to understand how the organization's programs are funded. Nominating tip: complete your member profile fully, because staff and committee chairs search it.

Stage 3: Volunteer for a Committee or Task Group

Short-term task groups are a low-risk way to prove reliability. Organizational leadership and team-management skills carry over. Nominating tip: ask an existing volunteer to name you as a reference or to introduce you to the chair.

Stage 4: Take On Advocacy Work

Draft comment letters, brief legislators, or help prepare testimony. Writing for policy audiences is the course skill that matters most here, since briefs must be short and evidence-based. Nominating tip: document outcomes, such as a letter submitted or a position adopted, and save the work samples.

Stage 5: Run for a Board or Officer Position

Officer seats reward both governance and money skills. Finance training is a real asset, as the 2026 treasurer election showed, when a nurse educator with business administration preparation won a seat. Nominating tip: pair your bio with two or three references from people who have served beside you, and show a record of finished commitments rather than a list of titles.

The Route to NLN Board Service at a Glance

National board seats are rarely a first move. They tend to follow a visible record of leadership at home, then service at the association level. Here is the sequence most working administrators can follow.

Time Commitment, Travel and Employer Support: Making National Service Feasible

National service is realistic for a working administrator, but only when you budget it like any other standing commitment instead of squeezing it into leftover evenings. The figures below are typical estimates drawn from how association volunteer roles generally run. They are not official NLN numbers, so review the NLN's own role descriptions and calls for nominations before you commit.

What the Hours Usually Look Like

A committee or task force member often spends roughly 2 to 5 hours a month. An officer or board seat commonly runs 10 to 20 hours a month, with spikes around budget cycles and annual meetings. That time breaks into three buckets:

• Meetings and calls: Recurring virtual meetings, plus occasional ad hoc calls when a decision is pending.
• Preparation and reading: Board packets, financial reports, draft policy statements and committee minutes. Officers should expect this to be the largest share.
• Travel: In-person board meetings and the annual summit, typically a few trips a year, each costing two to four days away from your unit or campus.

How to Ask Your Employer

Keep the request to one page and frame it as an organizational investment:

• Business case: Name the role and explain how national visibility supports accreditation readiness for nursing administration programs, faculty or staff recruiting, and early insight into policy changes.
• Hours requested: State a monthly figure and how you will cover operational duties during meetings and travel.
• Funding request: List travel, registration and membership dues, with estimates.
• Return promised: Commit to a quarterly briefing for nursing leadership, a staff presentation after each major meeting, and use of the role in recruiting materials.

Options When Your Calendar Is Full

If an officer seat is out of reach this year, start smaller. Virtual committee work and short-term task forces build the same relationships with far less travel. Responding to NLN advocacy action alerts or contacting legislators on a workforce bill takes minutes and still puts your perspective on record.

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NLN vs. AONL, ANA and Sigma: Which Leadership Body Fits Your Role?

The difference between the NLN, AONE and ANA comes down to who each one serves. The National League for Nursing is built around nursing education, AONE (now called AONL) focuses on nurse leaders who run care delivery, and the ANA represents registered nurses across the whole profession. Sigma is an honor society centered on scholarship and leadership development. As a rule of thumb, education and academic administrators lean NLN, hospital and system executives lean AONL, and many leaders join more than one.