Search Advisory Committee Named for Next UMSN Dean

Submitted on Jun 2, 2015

The committee has been charged with conducting a broad search and presenting a slate of recommended candidates to the provost during Winter Term 2016.

On May 13, 2015, University of Michigan Provost Martha Pollack named an advisory committee to search for a new dean of the U-M School of Nursing (UMSN). The committee will be chaired by Carol Boyd, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Deborah J. Oakley Collegiate Professor of Nursing at UMSN, who has U-M appointments as Professor, Women's Studies Department, LSA; and Research Professor, Addiction Research Center, Psychiatry, Institute for Research on Women & Gender. 

“It is a pleasure to serve as chair of this search committee,” said Boyd. “As a top-ten school of nursing, our school has a very solid foundation and we will continue as leaders, both nationally and internationally. We have a new state-of-the-art building opening in Fall 2015, respected senior faculty, and promising junior faculty and enthusiastic alumni support. Our search committee recognizes that nursing leadership has never been as important, and the school is in a strong position to find an excellent new dean.”  

The committee has been charged with conducting a broad search and presenting a slate of recommended candidates to the provost during Winter Term 2016. In addition to Boyd, members of the UMSN dean search committee include:

  • Hassan Abbas BSN ‘17
  • Cynthia Arslanian-Engoren, PhD ‘99, RN, ACNS-BC, FAHA, FAAN; UMSN Associate Professor, Director of Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development
  • Jane Barnsteiner, PhD ’84, FAAN; Faculty Emerita, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
  • Debra Barton, RN, PhD, AOCN, FAAN; UMSN Mary Lou Willard French Professor of Nursing
  • Margaret Calarco, PhD ’92, RN; Chief Nursing Officer, University of Michigan Health System
  • James Dalton, PhD; Dean, School of Pharmacy
  • Christopher R. Friese, PhD, RN, AOCN®, FAAN
  • Bonnie Hagerty, PhD ’89, RN; UMSN Associate Dean, Office of Undergraduate Studies
  • Lori Pierce, MD; Professor, Radiation Oncology
  • Stephen Strobbe, MS ’98, PhD ’09, RN, PMHCNS-BC, CARN-AP; UMSN Clinical Associate Professor and Specialty Lead, Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing
  • Colleen Zimmerman, Executive Director of Development and External Relations
     
In a February 2015 email to faculty and staff at the school, Provost Pollack wrote that Kathleen Potempa will be ending her term as dean during the academic year 2016, “after a decade of outstanding service to the school’s core mission to improve health and well-being of society through the impact of research and by educating nurses for leadership in academic and practice roles.” She praised Potempa for leading “transformational change” in the School of Nursing:
 
“Dean Potempa built key partnerships with the UM Health System and other regional health systems, giving students opportunities for research and the ability to influence nursing and health care in their clinical placements. Under her leadership, the school recruited talented junior faculty and highly accomplished senior faculty, which strengthened the clinical track by more closely integrating teaching, research, clinical nursing, and health care practice. She has positioned the school for new productivity outcomes related to scientific research and interdisciplinary connectedness. The new building opening in September will meet space needs, including a clinical learning center with simulation and skill labs and simulated patient suites in an environment that will foster collaboration and community. Throughout her term, Dean Potempa has set the tone for an environment that values and supports excellence in the School of Nursing.”
 
For her part, Dean Potempa expresses great pride and affection for her decade of leadership at UMSN: “While Michigan is the third school for which I have been honored to have been dean, Michigan is truly the place I will hold as the pinnacle of my career. I have the greatest respect for my colleagues and for the Michigan community. I will remain here as faculty to continue my own scholarly work after a much anticipated year of leave.  But there is much to be done going forward to maintain our momentum, and in the UM tradition I will be an active and engaged dean.”
 
To recommend candidates or ask questions of the committee chair, send an email to son-dsac-chair@umich.edu.