​​As an associate dean, Hannans provides opportunities for lifelong learning and programs that improve quality of life for her students, but she’s been teaching nursing clinical, classroom and lab courses since 2009. Her extraordinary background includes hands-on hospital-based critical care nursing, home health nursing, teaching and learning, simulation and technology. Hannans launched the VR labs in 2018, an immersive learning system simulating physical problems and/or chronic disease or illness faced by aging adults and utilizes mixed reality technology to train students how to navigate difficult end-of-life conversations. In 2018 she received a CSU Faculty Innovation and Leadership Award, and in 2019 she was named Ventura County Leadership Academy Educational Leader of the Year. One thing has been constant for Hannans: the CSU. “I’m passionate about helping people—students and patients,” she says. “I received my education through the CSU system and now I am able to give back to those who are achieving their educational goals in the CSU.”​