Ruth (Pakieser) Macnamara, Ph.D., has been appointed assistant dean of the new University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing Northern Division in Norfolk effective July 1. Dr. Macnamara is the founding and transitional dean. One of her tasks will be to identify a permanent assistant dean by January 2011.
The facility, named the J. Paul and Eleanor McIntosh College of Nursing, is scheduled to open in 2010 and will house nursing programs of UNMC and Northeast Community College. Private donations of $11.9 million funded the project. Annual operating costs will be funded by the state.
Dr. Macnamara has served as an associate professor and clinical instructor in mental health nursing since 2007, and in the last year has been laying the groundwork for UNMC’s new division that will serve the northeast region of Nebraska. This is her second stint with the UNMC College of Nursing. She previously served as director of the UNMC College of Nursing Learning Resource Center from 1988 to 1996. She also served as assistant professor in the UNMC School of Allied Health Professions from 1988 to 1996.
Virginia Tilden, D.N.Sc., dean of the UNMC College of Nursing, said Dr. Macnamara has a distinguished career in nursing education and administration.
“Dr. Macnamara brings a wealth of knowledge in nursing education, organizational development and academic administration,” Dr. Tilden said. “She is ideally positioned for success as we take the next historic steps in extending our campus structure to northeast Nebraska.
“We couldn’t have hoped for anyone with a better foundation of experience. Our faculty are extremely enthusiastic to have Dr. Macnamara take on this position.”
Dr. Macnamara, who has 40 years of academic nursing experience, began her academic career as an instructor at St. Joseph School of Nursing in Omaha. Since then, she has held positions, including nursing program director and division chair at Mount Marty College of Nursing in Yankton, S.D., and as dean of the School of Health Care Professionals at College of Saint Mary in Omaha.
Dr. Tilden said Dr. Macnamara has already established excellent working relationships with the university’s partners in the initiative to bring UNMC to Norfolk, including Northeast Community College, Faith Regional Health Services, and many community and critical access hospitals.
“Ruth Macnamara brings just the right combination of skill and expertise to the position,” said Bill Path, Ed.D., president of Northeast Community College. “Dr. Macnamara’s enthusiasm is contagious and she brings a vested interest to the project here. She will hit the ground running in a very few weeks, building what I am sure will be an exceptional team of faculty and administrative staff.”
Dr. Macnamara said as liaison between the UNMC College of Nursing and Norfolk, she helped finalize work begun when representatives from the region initiated the request for the college to establish a fifth campus in Norfolk. “The people of the community and the health care community are uniformly enthusiastic and so very supportive of this project that it has been and will be a joy to work with them in this position,” she said. “I look forward to being part of this historic partnership, which has truly been energizing.”
Dr. Macnamara, who grew up north of Mason City, Iowa, has called Nebraska home since 1963.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Creighton University in 1965, a master’s degree in educational psychology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1970, a doctorate in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1986 and a master’s degree in nursing from UNMC in 1993.
UNMC is the only public health science center in the state. Its educational programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other institution. Through their commitment to education, research, patient care and outreach, UNMC and its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, have established themselves as one of the country’s leading centers in cancer, transplantation biology, bioterrorism preparedness, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, genetics, biomedical technology and ophthalmology. UNMC’s research funding from external sources now exceeds $82 million annually and has resulted in the creation of more than 2,600 highly skilled jobs in the state. UNMC’s physician practice group, UNMC Physicians, includes 513 physicians in 50 specialties and subspecialties who practice primarily in The Nebraska Medical Center. For more information, go to UNMC’s Web site at www.unmc.edu.
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