Laci Sutton serves as Dean and Assistant Professor of Nursing at Howard Payne University. With 11 years of experience in nursing education, including 10 years at Howard Payne, Sutton is passionate about preparing students to enter the nursing profession with confidence, compassion, clinical excellence, and a strong Christian foundation.
Sutton teaches a variety of undergraduate nursing courses, including Professional Nursing Capstone, Pharmacology Nursing Perspectives, Elements of Evidence-Based Nursing Practice, Aging/Chronicity/End-of-Life Perspectives, Clinical Nursing I, Clinical Nursing II, Clinical Nursing IV: Advanced Medical-Surgical Nursing, and Nursing: A Christian Worldview. Her favorite course to teach is Clinical Nursing IV: Advanced Medical-Surgical Nursing because it closely connects with her professional background. Before transitioning into nursing education, Sutton worked primarily in the Medical ICU, where she cared for patients experiencing critical and life-threatening conditions.
Her clinical experience continues to shape her approach to nursing education. Sutton is passionate about helping students navigate complex patient situations that require strong clinical judgment as well as emotional, spiritual, and ethical awareness. She enjoys helping students develop the skills and confidence necessary to provide compassionate care while recognizing the unique needs of patients and their families. For Sutton, preparing students for professional nursing means equipping them to care for the whole person with skill, integrity, and compassion.
One of the aspects Sutton values most about teaching at Howard Payne is the opportunity to openly integrate her Christian faith into nursing education. She appreciates being part of a university where she does not have to separate her faith from her teaching but is instead encouraged to bring the two together. Through mentoring and instruction, she seeks to model Christ-centered care and help students understand how their faith can influence the way they serve patients, families, and colleagues.
Sutton views nursing not simply as a profession, but as a calling from God. Her experiences caring for patients and families during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives reinforced her belief that nurses have an important opportunity to serve others physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She hopes to inspire students to view nursing in the same way—as an opportunity to serve others with excellence, integrity, and the love of Christ.
Sutton holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice from Grand Canyon University, a Master of Science in Nursing Education and Administration from Lubbock Christian University, a Diploma in Nursing from Covenant School of Nursing, and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Howard Payne University.
Her scholarly and professional work includes presentations on Christian faith in the classroom, nursing education and program development, tobacco cessation and prevention, evidence-based nursing practice, and nursing leadership. Most recently, she presented through the AACN Access, Connection, and Inclusion Leadership Institute on developing a structured faculty mentorship program to support onboarding and role transition in nursing academia.
Outside of the university, Sutton enjoys spending time with her family, especially supporting her boys in their sports and activities. She enjoys playing basketball and tennis with them, running, and gathering around the dinner table for family meals and meaningful time together. She is also involved with Early Church of Christ.
