Nursing college to welcome new dean
New leader expected to oversee multiple changes
Among other changes, including an imminent move to downtown Phoenix, the ASU College of Nursing has selected a new dean effective in January.
Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, currently at the University of Rochester in New York, will take over for outgoing Dean Barbara Durand, who held the position for nearly 12 years.
Interim Dean Karen Sousa said the college is "very excited" to welcome Melnyk. Sousa was part of the committee that recommended Melnyk to the Arizona Board of Regents and will go back to her position as associate dean of the college in January.
"We were looking for someone who could take us to the next level -- someone with a strong research and teaching background who also has the courage to take risks," Sousa said.
Sousa said they needed someone to help propel ASU's nursing program into the top 20 nationally and still maintain a balance of teaching and research.
Sousa said she felt Melnyk's lack of familiarity with ASU would be to her benefit as the College of Nursing moves to the Capital Center campus within the next couple of years.
"She doesn't have the mind barriers that someone might have if they'd been here, and she can suggest and try new things we hadn't thought of," Sousa said.
Melnyk holds a bachelor's degree in science and nursing from the University of West Virginia; a master's of science, with a specialization to become a pediatric nurse practitioner, from the University of Pittsburg; a doctorate from Rochester in clinical research; and, a
postmaster's certificate from Rochester as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.
Melnyk is the founding dean of the Center for Research and Evidence-Based Practice at Rochester, which focuses on practical nursing research.
Melnyk said she plans to start a similar program at ASU and is trying to continue her old position at Rochester while "starting to formulize exciting plans for ASU." A new focus on research is just the beginning, she said.
Retiring Dean Barbara Duran approached Melnyk in 2003 about the deanship and was "very persistent."
"They hung in there and made me very excited about coming to ASU," Melnyk said. "ASU has great potential to become a great nursing program, increase partnerships with local health care and really improve the quality of nursing practice here."
In another change for the college, a new nursing doctoral program will be launched in fall 2005 with only five students.
Melnyk said she wants to create an accelerated master's-to-doctorate program at ASU, as most doctoral nursing students don't finish until they are an average of 47 years old, leaving them with "not many more years to build solid programs."
The doctoral candidates will spend two years in classes and two years on a dissertation and will have equal opportunity to examine all sides of nursing: teaching, research and leadership.
The program is focused on registered nurses with a master's degree who want to become professors, researchers and hold leadership positions, Sousa said.
ASU usually admits about 60 nursing master's candidates a year, but Sousa said the college admitted 120 for the upcoming fall semester.
The college hopes to increase, through the doctoral program, its 300 partnerships with local and national businesses, including the Mayo Clinic and Banner Health.
Reach the reporter at annemarie.moody@asu.edu.
