Appointment of Dean of School of Nursing–Camden

December 19, 2011

Members of the Rutgers Community:

Since July 1, Dr. Joanne P. Robinson has served with excellence as acting dean of the newly established School of Nursing–Camden. We are pleased today to announce that she has been appointed permanent dean, effective immediately, and that with her appointment she has also been nominated for promotion to Professor I.

As founding dean, Dr. Robinson will continue to work with her nursing faculty colleagues to advance the academic programs that will define the School of Nursing–Camden. She is more than prepared for the task. As chair of the then-Department of Nursing, Dr. Robinson transformed the nursing program at Rutgers–Camden from an upper-division major into a comprehensive, four-year undergraduate program and greatly expanded the department’s professional education efforts, including a very popular RN-to-BSN program.

Dr. Robinson, a scholar with expertise in nursing care of the elderly, is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, one of the highest honors in the field. Her early work with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Teaching Nursing Home Project was part of the avalanche of effort and evidence that shaped an agenda for gerontological nursing research, reforms in nursing home care, and education of nurses to care for older adults. Later, her work helped to seed the evidence base for restraint-free care of nursing home residents.

In New Jersey, Dr. Robinson cofounded the NJ End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium; served on the Governor’s Advisory Council on Elder Care and the New Jersey Commission on Aging; and has participated in multiple statewide initiatives to improve nursing home care and access to senior services. Her research has been supported by the NIH, recognized with six awards, and merited appointments to a number of national committees and boards of nursing professional associations.

Dr. Robinson holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from William Paterson College and a master’s degree in community health nursing from Rutgers–Newark. She earned a master’s degree in social gerontology and a doctorate in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania.

Please join us in offering Joanne Robinson our congratulations and our strong support.

Richard L. McCormick
President

Wendell E. Pritchett
Chancellor