Duke named Catherine Gilliss, dean of the nursing school at Yale University, the new dean of its School of Nursing. Gilliss will take over Oct. 1 when current dean Mary Champagne retires.
When Duke named Catherine Gilliss the next dean of the School of Nursing earlier this month, it lured yet another high-ranking official from Yale University. Gilliss, dean of Yale’s nursing school, will take over the position Oct. 1 when current dean Mary Champagne retires.
Gilliss will also become the first vice chancellor for nursing affairs—a position Dr. Victor Dzau, chancellor for health affairs and president and CEO of Duke University Health System, plans to institute. The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees is expected to approve both appointments.
“What I see this doing is elevating the recognition of the importance of Nursing in the organization,” said Brenda Nevidjon, associate clinical professor in the School of Nursing.
The announcement comes following a seven-month national search headed by Dr. Haywood Brown, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Originally the committee hoped to have a candidate by the end of the 2003-04 school year but could not because Dzau, who assumed his position July 1, needed to participate in the selection.
“The School of Nursing is as important a part of Duke University Medical Center as nurses are to health care, and we are delighted to have recruited someone of Dr. Gilliss’ stature to be its next leader,” Dzau said in a statement. “We look forward to having her as an important strategic partner of the Health System executive leadership team.”
Gilliss, who has served as dean of nursing at Yale for six years, spurred Yale’s School of Nursing to improve awareness and research opportunities for minority scholars.
“One of Cathy’s focuses has been to explore and celebrate diversity, cultural and ethnic diversity within the profession of nursing and throughout the Yale campus,” said Ilya Sverdlov, director of public affairs at Yale School of Nursing.
One of Gilliss’ major initiatives was the Yale-Howard Scholars program, which unites minority undergraduate nursing students from Howard University with Yale mentors for a summer to pursue research interests and encourage future graduate schooling.
“Mostly we have had African-American students that have gone on to pursue research on African Americans in different parts of the country,” Sverdlov said. “This program has been very successful—over 75 percent of students participating have gone onto graduate research.”
During her tenure Gilliss also created the Yale-Howard Partnership to Eliminate Health Disparities.
Nevidjon said both projects incorporate goals Duke wants to pursue. “In nursing, we talk a lot about needing to be more inclusive of minorities,” she said. “She is a leader who not only talks a vision, but implements one and makes it happen.”
Gilliss has also helped Yale acquire grants from the National Institute of Health. Yale’s nursing school receives more funding from NIH than any other nursing school of comparable size and makeup. Under her leadership, Yale’s School of Nursing has improved from 24th to 10th in the annual U.S. News and World Report rankings. Duke’s School of Nursing currently ranks 29th.
Gilliss graduated from Duke in 1971 with an undergraduate nursing degree—a degree which was discontinued in 1984— and earned post-graduate degrees from Catholic University of America, University of Rochester and the University of California at San Francisco. She said in a statement she looks forward to coming back to the school she once called home.
Gilliss declined to grant interviews until she fully steps into her new role Oct. 1.
Champagne was pleased with her replacement, noting that Gilliss is “incredibly thoughtful and a visionary leader.”
She speculated that during Gilliss’ tenure, her successor would finalize plans for a doctoral program, oversee the new nursing building and help lure top professors. “I think that she is a very creative thinker and I have no doubt that she will implement wonderful things that I am not envisioning,” Champagne said.
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