Leadership

Leadership

  • Ranked among the top 3% of nursing schools, and still Virginia's only nursing program to be ranked in the nation's top 25
  • Academic home to nurse scientists who lead funded investigations in aging, healthcare technology, and health disparities and social determinants of health
  • A pioneer in and champion of teaching compassionate care and clinician well-being
  • Lauded for an award-winning healthy work environment, creating novel on-ramps for nursing faculty professors and clinician-educators, as well as mentoring programs for undergraduate nurse researchers, new UVA Health nurses, and RN to BSN students

Our mission is to improve lives through nursing. We transform health through exceptional care, science, learning, and influence and are a learning community rooted in compassion and respect that values trust, equity, excellence, collaboration, and knowledge.

Marianne Baernholdt

Marianne Baernholdt, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN

The Pew Charitable Trusts Dean and Professor, UVA School of Nursing
Dean of Professional Nursing, UVA Health

Jeanne Alhusen

Jeanne Alhusen, PhD, CRNP, RN, FAAN

Associate Dean for Nursing Research and the UVA Medical Center Endowed Professor of Nursing

Regina DeGennaro

Regina DeGennaro, DNP, CNS, RN, AOCN, CNL

Department Chair of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Professor

Louise Fleming

Louise Fleming, PhD, MSN-Ed, RN, FAAN

Associate Dean for Academic Operations and Professor

Melissa Gomes

Melissa Gomes, PhD, APRN, PMHNP-BC, FNAP, FAAN

Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Associate Professor

Sara Hallowell

Sara Hallowell, DNP, RN, CPNP-PC, CNL

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Associate Professor

Randy Jones

Randy Jones, PhD, RN, FAAN, FADLN

Associate Dean for Partner Development and Engagement
The Jeanette Lancaster Alumni Professor of Nursing

Christine Kueter

Christine Kueter

Director of Communications and Marketing

Lance Poston

Lance Poston, PhD

Chief of Staff

Barbara Reyna

Barbara Reyna, PhD, RN, NNP-BC

Department Chair of Graduate Nursing Programs and Associate Professor

Shelly Smith

Shelly Smith, PhD, DNP, APRN-BC, FAAN, FNAP

Associate Dean for Graduate Nursing Programs and Professor

John Teahan

John Teahan, MEd

Senior Associate Dean for Administration

Erik Williams

Erik Williams

Executive Director of Development


Mission

Improving lives through nursing 

Vision

Transforming health through exceptional care, science, learning, and influence 

Values

The UVA School of Nursing is a learning community rooted in compassion and respect, and in lockstep with UVA Health and its ASPIRE values, which include Accountability, Stewardship, Professionalism, Integrity, Respect, and Equity. As a community of students, faculty, and staff, we value: 

  • Trust: We are a community of trust and integrity 
  • Equity: We stand firmly for equity, inclusion, and diversity and against racism and social injustices of any kind
  • Excellence: We pursue excellence in nursing practice and in teaching and learning, and believe learning is life-long
  • Collaboration: We value problem-solving across programs and roles and collectively thrive when the environment is healthy, respectful, and caring
  • Knowledge: We are committed to advancing science and developing evidence-based solutions that improve health, health equity, and healthcare 

Our Extraordinary Future: 10-Year Strategic Plan


Our Extraordinary Future: 10-Year Strategic Plan - Our Process

Initiated upon Marianne Baernholdt's arrival as dean in fall 2022, and among her top priorities, the School's strategic planning process was designed to be an inclusive, iterative process that would tap the collective knowledge, experience, and expertise of the School of Nursing community. Guided by UVA's Office of Organizational Excellence, a 10-member Strategy Working Group, Dean's Council members, as well as community members at large, who were invited multiple times throughout the process to contribute to and co-create a shared future direction for the School, our community embarked on a process of discovery and refinement as we collectively identified, explored, and developed emerging areas of impact and distinction.

Foundational to the process launch were a series of community conversations in which more than half of faculty and staff shared their insights and aspirations and identified big areas of opportunity. An All-School Strategic Planning Retreat in January 2023—that engaged more than three quarters of faculty and staff—was followed by work groups in later 2023 and early 2024. In summary, across the process, more than 30 working sessions gathered more than 100 members of the School community, work that led to the plan’s completion, the School's finalized plan, and our collective path forward.

Nearly 18 months after it began, and after a brief pause in spring and summer 2023 as the School prepared for multiple decennial re-accreditation visits, School leaders vetted the final draft of the plan in spring 2024 with the School community and key UVA and UVA Health stakeholders. 

Our Extraordinary Future: 10-Year Strategic Plan


Strategic Plan Working Group members

Ryne Ackard, Kimberly Acquaviva, Cathy Campbell, Lynn Corbett, Delores Fields, Ivora Hinton, Tracy Kelly, Kathryn Laughon, John Teahan, and Ishan Williams

Dean’s Council members+

Ryne Ackard, Jeanne Alhusen, Theresa Carroll, Bethany Coyne, Gina DeGennaro, Beth Epstein, Melissa Gomes, Sarah Hallowell, Randy Jones, Lance Poston, Kathryn Reid, Barbara Reyna, Abby Self, Shelly Smith, John Teahan, and Erik Williams.

+ Individuals listed served on Dean’s Council at some point during Strategic Plan development.


UVA School of Nursing's organizational chart, as of August 2024.

Organizational chart