ULM Nursing scholarship in memory of Dr. Emily Doughty

The University of Louisiana Monroe Foundation will conduct a special press conference Thursday, Aug. 20, at 1 p.m., to announce the Dr. Emily S. Doughty Memorial Scholarship in Nursing.

Dr. Doughty, who passed away February 21, 2026, was born and raised in Jena to the union of Blanchard Carl and Mildred Jewel Smith. She spent her adult life in the Monroe/West Monroe area where she served in various university nursing instructor and administrator roles, mostly at ULM.

The announcement ceremony will be held at 1 p.m. in the ULM Kitty DeGree School of Nursing Auditorium, at 700 University Avenue in Monroe on the campus of ULM.

For those wishing to attend, please RSVP Kathy Fry at (318) 342-5429.

Dr. Doughty graduated with a B.S. in Nursing from Northeast Louisiana University (NLU) in 1976. She earned a M.S. in Nursing focused on Nursing Education from Texas Women’s University in 1979.

She joined the nursing faculty at NLU in 1979 and served as a nursing instructor until 1985. From 1985, she taught nursing at Grambling State University before returning to NLU in 1992.

She continued to serve as a nursing instructor at NLU through its transition to become the University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM). She was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing when NLU founded its Lambda Mu chapter in 1990.

In 2003, Dr. Doughty joined the ULM nursing school’s administration upon accepting a position as a course coordinator, and she later became the school’s associate director. She earned her Ed.D. focused on Higher Education from Nova Southeastern University in 2010.

In May of 2012 she became the Director of the ULM School of Nursing and presided over its transition to Kitty DeGree School of Nursing. Dr. Doughty retired in 2017, spending her last years traveling and enjoying her family, especially her grandchildren.