School Notes: School of Nursing
March/April 2017

YSN names new executive deputy dean

Carmen J. Portillo has been named the Yale School of Nursing’s next executive deputy dean, effective July 1. She currently serves as professor and chairperson of the community health systems department at the University of California–San Francisco (UCSF) School of Nursing.

Her research interests center on HIV and also cover sleep disturbance, fatigue, and its genetic associations in people with HIV/AIDS. Her work includes adherence and stigma related to HIV/AIDS, Hispanic health issues, women’s health, symptom management, quality of life, health systems, health disparities in vulnerable and high-risk populations, and international capacity development.

Portillo has provided instrumental leadership in expanding opportunities for Hispanic nurses in four-year-degree and graduate programs across the country. She helped found the National Association of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations, Inc., which represents the five ethnic minority nurse organizations.

She is widely known in the nursing sciences, having been nationally and internationally recognized with numerous honors and awards, including the Dr. Martin Luther King Award from UCSF; she was named a Fulbright senior specialist, and was honored by Sigma Theta Tau for recognition of excellence in nursing leadership.

White House honors YSN associate dean

Jacqueline Taylor, YSN’s associate dean of diversity and inclusion and assistant professor of nursing, has been honored with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The award represents the highest honor bestowed on early-career scientists by the US government.

Taylor is principal investigator on a five-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research, titled “Intergenerational Impact of Genetic and Psychological Factors on Blood Pressure.” The award also recognizes her complete body of work on gene-environment interactions on blood pressure among minority populations as well as the community service she has provided to underserved communities.

“These innovators are working to help keep the United States on the cutting edge, showing that federal investments in science lead to advancements that expand our knowledge of the world around us,” President Obama said in a statement announcing the awards.