Health policy expert named associate dean at School of Nursing

Professor Antonia Villarruel has been named associate dean for research and scholarship at the School of Nursing.

An expert on national and international health policy, Villarruel widely is known for her studies of HIV prevention among adolescents in the United States and Mexico.

(Photo courtesy School Of Nursing)

Villarruel is the Nola J. Pender Collegiate Professor of Nursing and joined the faculty in 2000. She has served on several federal review panels and committees, and she chairs the Hispanic Science Advisory Council of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

Last year she was elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine. Villarruel's appointment, which was approved in July by the Board of Regents, is effective Jan. 1, 2009, through the end of 2014.

"With her commitment and passion, she has become an incredible researcher, educator and service provider," says School of Nursing Dean Kathleen Potempa. "She will now apply those same attributes as she launches into her new leadership role as associate dean of research and scholarship."