Dr. Barbara Brush Named the Carol J. and F. Edward Lake Term Clinical Professor
UMSN associate professor fortifies commitment to community health nursing with new appointment.
The Carol J. and F. Edward Lake Clinical Professorship is dedicated to advancing the science and practice of population health. It includes a special focus on community care models related to national health care reform.
It’s the kind of work University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) Associate Professor Barbara Brush Ph.D., ANP-BC, FAAN, has been doing for decades, and now will continue to do with the Lake Professorship. The author of two books, over fifty peer-reviewed journal articles, and numerous book chapters, Professor Brush’s main research interests focus on practice and community oriented translational research, social and health inequalities in health, the role of nursing in health care delivery and reform, and the exploration of policies and forces that determine the health and quality of life of populations locally, nationally, and globally.
Dr. Brush's research has benefited many vulnerable populations including low-income, displaced, and elderly people. She is currently leading a multidisciplinary team nurses, social workers, public health experts, paraprofessionals, and community advisors to explore the health and social needs of homeless families and develop, test, and measure the impact of interventions to improve family well-being and health. In addition, Dr. Brush is an advanced practice nurse now working at Hope Medical Clinic in Ypsilanti, which provides free medical care to uninsured children and adults
As the Carol J. and F. Edward Lake Term Clinical Professor, Dr. Brush will continue her practice and research, while taking on new responsibilities such as working with students in both undergraduate and graduate programs to create in-field education experiences focused on population health.
Background
Professor Brush received a B.S.N. in 1979 from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She received a M.S.N. as well as a Ph.D. in nursing and the history of science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982 and 1994, respectively. She then held a post-doctoral fellowship in 1995 at the Center for the Study of the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Brush joined the faculty at the University of Michigan School of Nursing in 2004 as an associate professor with tenure and chaired the Division for Health Promotion and Risk Reduction Programs through 2007. She later served as a member of the New York Academy of Medicine’s Nursing Workforce Diversity Task Force (2007), as interim Director of the School’s Center for Health Promotion (2008-2009), as a workforce consultant on the Sigma Theta Tau International Advisory Council on Policy (2008-2010), and as a nursing representative on the Robert Wood Johnson Leadership Council (2009-2012). A Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing since 1999, Dr. Brush has served on the National Library of Medicine study section for the past four years and is an expert member of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing School’s International Subcommittee on Advanced Practice Nursing.
