School Notes: School of Nursing
July/August 2023

New YSN dean arrives

Azita Emami, an internationally recognized nursing leader and investigator who has called attention to the key role nurses can play in improving care in underserved communities, will begin her YSN deanship on August 1. Emamiarrives from the School of Nursing at the University of Washington, where she served as executive dean. In her work, Emami has underscored the central role nurses can play in providing primary care so that underserved areas—urban and rural—have equitable access to health care. From 2018 to 2020, she led the US “Nursing Now” initiative, a global campaign associated with the International Council of Nurses and the World Health Organization. In 2021, she spearheaded the US “Year of the Nurse and the Midwife” campaign as part of a broader United Nations initiative.

Nursing and the dramatic arts

Assistant professor Sandy Cayo partnered with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater on a day of dance classes, food demonstrations, and information on heart health at YSN in mid-July. The event focused on first-year Graduated Entry Prespecialty in Nursing (GEPN) students and their Care of Adult course. Students presented on a variety of topics on non-pharmacological interventions for chronic disease management and cardiac health. In May of this year, Professor Cayo also participated in a dramatic reading of the Nurse Antigone by Sophocles. Professor Cayo was among the chorus of nurses in the play, which dramatizes the heavy cost of silencing and marginalizing caregivers, especially during times of crisis.

Retiring faculty

Among the faculty retiring from YSN this year are senior lecturer Andrée de Lisser ’79MSN, codirector of graduate studies for the PhD program; Professor Lois S. Sadler ’79MSN; and Professor Robin Whittemore, who first arrived at YSN as a postdoctoral fellow in 2000. Also retiring this fall is executive deputy dean Carmen Portillo, former president of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses and cofounder of the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations.