UNMC has announced four finalists for the College of Nursing dean.
The candidates will be in Omaha in January for interviews with select campus groups, as well as open forums that allow interested faculty, staff and students to hear from each of the candidates and pose questions.
“I am grateful for the dedication and work of the search committee and our partners at Spencer Stuart in helping us successfully arrive at this stage of the search process,” said Kyle Meyer, PhD, chair of the nursing dean search committee and dean of the UNMC College of Allied Health Professions. “On behalf of the search committee members, we are pleased to introduce an outstanding group of candidates to the UNMC community.”
In the order of their visits to campus, the candidates are:
- Lepaine Sharp-McHenry, DNP, dean of the College of Natural, Behavioral and Health Sciences at Simmons University. She will visit campus Thursday, Jan. 5. A registered nurse, Dr. Sharp-McHenry also has served as dean of the College of Nursing at Oklahoma Baptist University and assistant director of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at the University of Arkansas. Through her expertise in higher education, health care and regulation, Dr. Sharp-McHenry is recognized as a leader in her field and an enthusiastic advocate who actively supports initiatives to ensure quality education and accessible health care.
- Hyochol “Brian” Ahn, PhD, associate dean for research at Florida State University’s College of Nursing, will visit campus Friday, Jan. 13. His research aims to enhance health and independence in vulnerable populations using innovative technologies to optimize pain and symptom management, and he has expertise in nursing, medicine and computer engineering. Dr. Ahn has been continuously funded since 2011 as a principal investigator and has produced more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and presentations. He previously worked at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
- Carmen Giurgescu, PhD, Chatlos Foundation Endowed Chair and associate dean of research at the University of Central Florida College of Nursing. She will visit campus Tuesday, Jan. 17. A leader in eliminating racial disparities in preterm birth among Black women, Dr. Giurgescu has strategically developed a focused program of nationally recognized research to identify fundamental factors that underlie high rates of preterm birth among Black women. Her research, built on more than 15 years of clinical practice as a labor and delivery nurse and women’s health care nurse practitioner, has been consistently funded and currently includes two studies totaling $5.6 million from the National Institutes of Health.
- Cynthia Dougherty, PhD, vice chair of research at the University of Washington School of Nursing. She will visit campus Friday, Jan. 20. An advanced registered nurse practitioner, Dr. Dougherty has a sustained program of research focused on the development of knowledge related to human response to sudden cardiac arrest and cardiac arrhythmias, both for survivors and their family members. This research led to the development and testing of nursing interventions to improve health outcomes after sudden cardiac arrest and advanced heart disease. She earned both her associate and bachelor’s degrees in nursing at the University of Nebraska College of Nursing.
During each campus visit, the candidate will meet with UNMC, Nebraska Medicine and College of Nursing leadership, faculty and student representatives. They will participate in an open campus presentation, in which the candidate will make an introduction to the UNMC community, share their perspectives on the future of nursing education and answer questions from participants.
Find candidate bios and the dates/times for each campus presentation. There, UNMC faculty, staff and students also can access Zoom links for the campus presentations and provide feedback via the confidential survey form that will be added to the search webpage as candidates are introduced to the UNMC community.
The candidate selected will fill the role of retiring College of Nursing Dean Juliann Sebastian, PhD, who has served as dean for the past decade, overseeing UNMC College of Nursing division across the state of Nebraska, with locations in Scottsbluff, Kearney, Norfolk, Lincoln and Omaha.