Katharyn May, began her job as
dean in February, 2001. Formerly, she was a professor and
director of the School of Nursing at the University of British
Columbia in Vancouver and president of the Canadian Association
of University Schools of Nursing, a group that steers the
country's 58 colleges and schools of nursing. She succeeded
Vivian Littlefield, who stepped down as dean after 16 years
of leadership.
"Katharyn May brings a wide range of expertise to the
job and a deep understanding of the emerging issues of her
profession," said Chancellor David Ward. "She will
help our nursing school continue to progress and seize new
opportunities."
As director of nursing since 1994 at UBC, May helped establish
a strategic plan for the school, developed a new nursing bachelor's
degree program for people in second careers, and created a
new Office of Nursing Research. Earlier, she held faculty
and administrative posts at the University of California-San
Francisco and Vanderbilt University.
May says she will begin the job by listening to colleagues,
students and practitioners, and serving as a "lens to
focus input on improving the school."
"The school already has a strategic plan in place, but
I think it can be refined to reflect the school's unique position,"
she says. "We need to look for more strategic opportunities
and take that next step to becoming one of the leading nursing
schools in the nation."
May says the most pressing concern driving her profession
is a worldwide shortage of nurses, a situation expected to
worsen in coming years. At the same time, the profession is
changing and becoming more complex, putting more responsibility
on schools of nursing.
Another goal is to enhance the image of nursing as a rewarding
and fulfilling profession, she says, to counter some recent
portrayals of low compensation and burnout in the field.
The UW-Madison nursing school enrolls roughly 400 undergraduate
and 180 graduate students. May provides leadership to 20 faculty,
36 instructional staff and 46 support staff.
The school has nationally recognized programs in pain management,
patient health-seeking behaviors and the application of information
technology in health care. It is also advancing plans for
a new Nursing Science Center building.
May earned her bachelors degree in nursing and psychology
in 1973 from Duke University, and her masters and Ph.D. in
nursing science from the University of California-San Francisco.
Her research expertise is in the social psychological experience
of pregnancy with emphasis on new fatherhood and the impacts
of high-risk pregnancy on families. |
