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  “It has been very rewarding to facilitate our school’s strategic accomplishments and to be an advocate for the school within UB, with our alumni and with our community partners.”

  Nursing Dean Jean K. Brown

By LOIS BAKER

Published: December 6, 2010

Jean K. Brown, dean of the School of Nursing, announced on Dec. 6 that she will step down from the deanship in August 2011 after nearly six years at the helm of the school.

David L. Dunn, vice president for health sciences, said a national search will be conducted to identify Brown’s successor, with the goal of having a new dean in place to start the 2011-12 academic year.

Brown was appointed the school’s acting dean in November 2005 during a medical leave that preceded the death of Mecca Cranley, the school’s longest-serving dean, in November 2006. Brown served as interim dean from 2006-08, and was appointed dean of the nursing school in 2008.

Praising Brown’s many accomplishments as dean, Dunn said that during her tenure, Brown “worked assiduously with the faculty to create a robust strategic plan, which significantly enhanced the school’s scholarship, research and teaching missions, as well as faculty mentoring and development. The next dean will be grateful to have such a stable platform upon which to build.

“Under Jean’s leadership, the school undertook a rigorous self-study program and received exceedingly high marks and the maximal 10-year reaccreditation,” Dunn said. “She also guided the successful reaccreditation of the school’s Nurse Anesthetist Program. She was instrumental in creating a unique, simulated learning environment within the school, now closely aligned with the UB Academic Health Center’s multidisciplinary simulation center.”

Reflecting on her years in the nursing school, Brown said, “It has been very rewarding to facilitate our school’s strategic accomplishments and to be an advocate for the school within UB, with our alumni and with our community partners. It has been a privilege to be a part of the senior leadership team under President John Simpson’s visionary leadership.”

Brown said she is most proud of having facilitated a faculty-created mission, vision and strategic plan for the nursing school and making substantial progress on that plan. Among the accomplishments she cited in particular were the recruitment of exceptional leaders, utilizing an innovative matrix organization of tenure and clinical track faculty to advance both education and scholarship missions, moving the school to the newly renovated Wende and Beck halls on the South Campus, achieving full 10-year national accreditation with no compliance concerns, forging new community partnerships, and developing and obtaining approval of a Doctor of Nursing Practice program for the preparation of advance practice nurses.

“We’ve been very fortunate to have an individual of Jean’s expertise and experience on UB’s senior leadership team,” said President John B. Simpson. “I’ve greatly valued the thoughtful and strategic approach she has brought to her leadership—of the nursing school in particular and as part of broader institutional planning efforts through UB 2020.”

Provost Satish K. Tripathi said Brown “truly exemplifies how a dean can be an academic leader, mentor, educator, researcher and community partner.”

“Through Dean Brown’s leadership, UB’s education, research and service missions have come to life within and beyond the School of Nursing,” Tripathi added. “We thank Jean for her service to our university, for her commitment to providing our students with an outstanding education and for nurturing a culture of excellence for our students, faculty and staff.”

Nursing always will be a discipline critical to the needs of society in the U.S. and around the world, Brown said, noting that nurses are the largest segment of the health-provider workforce and are absolutely essential to excellent quality health care.

“We care for individuals, families and communities, using a holistic approach that focuses on the physical, psychological, social and spiritual issues related to health promotion, disease prevention, illness and end of life. We work to achieve the optimal quality of life within given circumstances. Nurses are highly trusted professionals in the U.S. and internationally.”

Brown earned a nursing diploma from the Fairview Hospital School of Nursing in Minneapolis and completed bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, as well as two years of postdoctoral study, at the University of Rochester School of Nursing.

She held several positions at her alma mater before coming to UB in 1993 as an assistant professor. She was promoted to associate professor of nursing at UB in 1999, was named associate dean for academic affairs in 2002 and earned full professorship in 2005.

Brown holds adjunct professorships in exercise and nutrition sciences, and rehabilitation science in the School of Public Health and Health Professions, as well as at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

A specialist in nursing oncology with a special interest in nutrition-related, cancer-symptom management, Brown is author or co-author of 50 papers in refereed journals. She also has written six book chapters on aspects of cancer nursing and has lectured widely.

Brown was co-chair of the SUNY Nursing Education Task Force. A fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, she was co-recipient of the Oncology Nursing Society’s Publishing Division Oncology Nursing Forum 2005 Quality of Life Award at its 31st Annual Congress in 2006 for her paper “Quality of life and meaning of illness of women with lung cancer.” In 2007, Brown received the Connie Henke Yarbro Excellence in Cancer Nursing Mentorship Award sponsored by the Oncology Nursing Society Foundation.

She received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2004 and the Sustained Achievement Award from UB in 2003. From the UB nursing school, she received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2001, and in 2007 was named a Distinguished Faculty Mentor.