The School of Nursing and Health Studies appointed Carole Roan Gresenz as interim dean while the university begins its search for a permanent dean of the NHS.
University President John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95) announced that Gresenz began as interim dean at the start of September in an email to the Georgetown University community Tuesday. DeGioia praised Gresenz’s distinguished career and commitment to the university’s values as an NHS professor and senior associate dean.
“Throughout her time with our University, Carole has demonstrated an exemplary level of commitment and care on behalf of our Georgetown community,” DeGioia wrote in the email. “I am deeply grateful to Carole for assuming this important role as we begin our process to identify permanent leadership for the School of Nursing and Health Studies.”
For the upcoming academic year, Gresenz has three primary goals for advancing the NHS: supporting educational programs, strengthening research opportunities for faculty and students, and taking part in the university’s Health Sciences Strategy Initiative, she said in a university news release.
“What I’m most looking forward to is strategizing about the ways that Georgetown, in general, and NHS, in particular, can increasingly contribute to the complex and important issues surrounding health and health care in the U.S and globally, both through the education of our students and the work of our faculty,” Gresenz wrote in an email to The Hoya.
Gresenz, who began her interim term at the start of September, is a tenured full professor in the school’s department of health systems administration. She joined Georgetown’s faculty for the first time in 2012, holding the Bette Jacobs Endowed Professorship and became a senior associate dean in 2018. Before Gresenz began working at Georgetown, she was a researcher at a public policy think tank. Research is critical for students and faculty in the NHS and advancing those opportunities is one of her aims as interim dean, she wrote.
“What I love about research is simple—it is the idea of asking questions about the world—and in my case, about health and health care primarily; identifying ways to answer those questions; and then working on disseminating findings appropriately so that the knowledge can be used to improve peoples’ lives,” Gresenz wrote.
Gresenz succeeds Patricia Cloonan, who stepped down after serving as dean for five years. Cloonan was appointed as dean of the NHS in September 2016 after acting as interim dean from 2014 onward.
The university intends to initiate its search for a permanent dean this fall and make a selection in time for the 2020-21 academic year, Gresenz wrote.
Cloonan strengthened the undergraduate and graduate programs in the NHS and advanced the university’s commitment to academic excellence, according to DeGioia.
“I wish to again express my deepest gratitude to our colleague, Patricia Cloonan, Ph.D., RN, for her service as Dean and steadfast leadership of NHS over the past five years, and for her continued contributions to our community,” Degioia wrote.
To supplement the NHS’ leadership team, professor Pablo Irusta will also become associate dean of the NHS in addition to his role as chair of the department of human science, according to the news release. Patricia Grady (NHS ’67), director emerita of the National Institute of Nursing Research, will join as a senior advisor for nursing in the office of the dean, supporting the department chairs and helping supervise programs in the NHS.
Leading the NHS is an exciting opportunity that requires a commitment to collaboration across areas of study, Gresenz wrote.
“We are uniquely positioned to contribute to the interdisciplinary education of students and to interdisciplinary research in health sciences,” Gresenz wrote. “NHS is a gem of Georgetown.”
