Ann Kurth Ph.D., R.N., M.P.H., F.A.A.N., an expert on global health currently at New York University, will be the next dean of the Yale School of Nursing, announced President Peter Salovey in a message to the campus community. Her appointment is effective Jan. 1, 2016.
“Ann Kurth’s long trajectory of personal and professional accomplishments in both the academic and global spheres makes her eminently qualified to lead the Yale School of Nursing as it continues to expand its educational, research, and clinical programs in its new, state-of-the-art facilities on West Campus,” said Salovey. “Her leadership in promoting health care around the world fits in ideally with the YSN mission of promoting better health for all.”
Kurth is an alumna of the Yale School of Nursing, having earned her master’s degree in nursing (specializing in midwifery) here in 1990.
“I am both humbled and excited by the opportunity to work with the amazing community that is Yale School of Nursing,” says Kurth. “The stellar faculty, brilliant students, dedicated staff, and vital partners are powerful resources — resources needed now more than ever as the U.S. health system aims to ensure greater access to primary care, and countries worldwide try to achieve universal health coverage. We can’t get there without advanced practice nurses and nurse-midwives. I believe that YSN can be a world leader in advanced practice nursing education, practice, and research.”
As a clinically trained epidemiologist, Kurth focuses her research on how to improve the prevention, detection, and care of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections; to promote reproductive health; and to strengthen health systems globally by using information and communication technologies, among other approaches, to further the establishment of health care and workforce training programs. Her work in the United States and abroad has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNAIDS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Health and Resources Administration, among others.
Kurth is currently professor of nursing, medicine, and public health at New York University. At the NYU College of Nursing, she founded and is executive director of NYUCN Global, which conducts research and implements programs to improve the health and well being of individuals, families, and communities in the United States and throughout the world. She holds the inaugural Paulette Goddard Professorship in Global Health Nursing, and is also associate dean for research at the NYU College of Global Public Health and professor of medicine in the NYU Department of Population Health. In addition, she is an affiliate professor at the University of Washington School of Nursing and at the UW Department of Global Health.
She has about 140 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and scholarly monographs, and edited one of the first books published on women and HIV: “Until the Cure” (Yale University Press 1993). She is a regular reviewer for public health, medical, and nursing journals.
Kurth has consulted for the NIH, the Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, and the CDC, among others. She was a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM)/National Academy of Science Committee on PEPFAR Evaluation (report to Congress 2/2013), where she led the Health System Strengthening workgroup.
The awards for her science and leadership include the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame award from Sigma Theta Tau International, the global nursing honor society. She is a board member and treasurer of the Consortium of Universities in Global Health, and a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, and the New York Academy of Medicine. Kurth was elected as a fellow of the IOM/National Academy of Medicine in 2013. She is a member of the 2014-2018 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
In addition to her Yale degree, Kurth holds an A.B. from Princeton, an M.P.H. in population and family health from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of Washington.
She succeeds another YSN alumna, Margaret Grey ’76 M.S.N., who will step down as dean on Aug. 31.
Salovey announced that Holly Powell Kennedy, executive deputy dean and the Helen Varney Professor of Midwifery, will serve as the interim dean of YSN during the fall term (Sept. 1-Dec. 31), adding, “I am grateful that Professor Kennedy has agreed to take on this important role.”
The President also thanked the members of the search committee “for their hard work and dedication to finding the best candidate for the School of Nursing and for Yale.” Deputy Provost Dr. Stephanie Spangler chaired the committee, which included Harold Attridge, Gail D’Onofrio, Holly Kennedy, Patrick O’Connor, Rafael Perez-Escamilla, Nancy Reynolds, Lois Sadler, Martha Swartz, Jacquelyn Taylor, and Julie Womack.
He also expressed his gratitude to Grey “who has been a strong and visionary leader at YSN for the past 22 years. Both the Yale School of Nursing and the university have benefited from her contributions.”