Dean Edwardson to Step Down

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

SCHOOL OF NURSING DEAN TO STEP DOWN
Doubled research funding and enrollment during her tenure

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (Sept. 15, 2003) - Sandra R. Edwardson, dean of the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, today announced she will step down from her position next summer. She will take a one-year administrative leave to pursue her own research interests, then return to the faculty. She has served as dean since 1991.

"Dean Edwardson is an effective leader who has responded to the challenges in the profession of nursing and has led the school into one of the top 10 in the country," said Frank Cerra, M.D., senior vice president for health sciences. "I have enjoyed working with her and her wisdom will be missed. I wish her the best in this transition."

One of Edwardson's goals was to strengthen the school's research programs essential to attracting excellent faculty and research funding. Her strategy was to create three centers of research excellence in gerontology, child and family health promotion research, and American Indian research and education.

The strategy was successful. Research funding for the school more than doubled, and the school has developed national prominence in those areas. This year, nearly a third of all the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau's educational grants went to University of Minnesota School of Nursing research programs. Funding from private sources responded to the invigorated programming as well, increasing endowments by more than $15 million.

Responding to the changing need for nurses, Edwardson more than doubled the number of nursing students. New education programs were established, including public health nursing, several nursing specialties, and a 16-month post-baccalaureate program that gives people with non-nursing degrees a jump-start into nursing practice and a master's degree in nursing.

During her term the school developed a "bridge" program to foster doctoral scholarship among American Indian students, and opened nursing programs in several locations around the state: an undergraduate satellite program in Rochester, and other programs in Mankato, northeast, and southeast Minnesota. The school developed innovative teaching programs, and became known as the campus leader in distance-education.

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The School of Nursing is one of seven schools and colleges in the Academic Health Center, one of the most comprehensive education and research facilities for health professionals in the nation, fostering interdisciplinary study and research.