Newly Appointed Dean to Join UA College of Nursing in July

Joan Shaver, PhD, RN, FAAN appointed as Dean of The University of Arizona College of Nursing in Tucson

Tempe, AZ -  Following a nationwide search, Joan Shaver, PhD, RN, FAAN, a national leader in nursing administration, education and research, has been appointed dean of The University of Arizona College of Nursing in Tucson.

Dr. Shaver is professor and dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), a top-10 college of nursing, according to U.S. News and World Report, and currently highly ranked in federal funding for nursing research and research training. She also is a nationally recognized researcher in women’s health, sleep science, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Dr. Shaver, who was a faculty member at the UA College of Nursing from 1976 to 1977, is expected to join the college as dean in July. She replaces Carolyn Murdaugh, RN, PhD, who has served as interim dean of the college since June 2008.

“We are absolutely thrilled that Joan Shaver has agreed to join our leadership team at the Arizona Health Sciences Center,” said Willliam M. Crist, MD, UA vice president for health affairs. “Dr. Shaver is among the very top nursing administrators in the nation. Her great success at the University of Illinois in Chicago speaks for itself. She also is an internationally noted research scientist and will bring a wealth of knowledge, expertise and experience to our state. We eagerly await her arrival.”

“It is an incredible honor and privilege to be appointed dean of The University of Arizona College of Nursing,” said Dr. Shaver. “This college has long been a national leader. The accomplished faculty and alumni, dedicated staff and highly competent students represent an impressive foundation for assuring that we reach even newer heights of excellence. I look forward to this outstanding opportunity to serve as dean.”

Dr. Shaver has conducted funded research in women’s health and sleep science for more than 20 years. She and her team were among the first to study sleep problems as part of menopause transition. Her women’s health and sleep science research encompasses sleep issues in women with mysterious and debilitating conditions disproportionately affecting women, including fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. During her tenure at UIC, she was co-director of the Research Core at the UIC National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health from 1997 to 2004.

Dr. Shaver is the 2004 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Research, Midwest Nursing Research Society, and the 2007 recipient of the North American Menopause Society/Duramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Menopause and Sleep Research Award presented through The North American Menopause Society.

Her research has been published in numerous professional journals, including the Journal of Women’s Health; Nursing Clinics of North America; Psychosomatic Medicine; Sleep; Brain, Behavior and Immunity; Nursing Research; the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism; the Journal of Women’s Health & Gender-Based Medicine; the Journal of Rheumatology; and Research in Nursing and Health. She is the author of numerous chapters and books, as well as editorials and commentaries, on the nursing profession, nursing research, the health care workforce and leadership.

Dr. Shaver has an enduring interest in developing nursing and health care leadership, shaping health systems, and recruiting and educating the “next generation.” In 2000, on the front edge of media and policy attention related to the nursing and health care workforce shortage — and through the UIC Nursing Institute, which she founded in her college — Dr. Shaver initiated a national policy analysis panel with the Hon. Lynn Martin as chair and representatives from business, health, professional and labor associations, foundations and policy institutes. Early on, the panel spoke out on the looming threat of having too few health care nursing providers to care for our aging population in a published document, Who Will Care For Each Of Us? America’s Coming Health Care Labor Crisis (2001).

Dr. Shaver was an invited member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Panel on the Health Professions Education Summit for 2002, which issued a report, Heath Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality, in April 2003. She was an external reviewer for the IOM report draft, Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem. For 12 years after founding the annual Power of Nursing Leadership Event, she has spearheaded with her colleagues this initiative to bring hundreds of health care leaders together across various health care sectors in Illinois.

As an Honors College Fellow, Dr. Shaver has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in leadership, technology and health policy, health ecology perspectives, and biobehavioral research frameworks. She has been reviewer or consultant to graduate or research programs at several universities, including Johns Hopkins University; Virginia Comonwealth University; the University of Texas, San Antonio; the University of Texas, Houston; Florida International University; and the University of Alberta, University of Calgary and Queens University in Canada.

Prior to joining UIC as dean of the College of Nursing in 1996, Dr. Shaver was with the University of Washington, Seattle, from 1985 to 1996, where she was co-director of the Center for Women’s Health Research and chairperson and professor of the Department of Physiological Nursing (re-named Department of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Systems in 1995).

While at UIC, Dr. Shaver was external examiner at the University of Hong Kong Department of Nursing from 1997 to 1999. She also served as a short-term World Health Organization (WHO) consultant/visiting professor in the Department of Nursing Studies, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Indonesia in 1987 and 1988.

Dr. Shaver serves on the board of directors of Advocate HealthCare, an 11-hospital integrated, faith-based health care system in metropolitan Chicago; as a board liaison to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago; and on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research in Canada.

She is past-president of the American Academy of Nursing. She served a four-year term on the National Advisory Council for the National Institute of Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health, and on the Nursing Science Review Committee for National Research Service Award pre- and post-doctoral training grants.

Dr. Shaver holds a doctorate in physiology and biophysics and a master’s in nursing from the University of Washington, and a baccalaureate degree from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. 

Established in 1957, the UA College of Nursing ranks among the top nursing programs in the United States and is recognized nationally for innovation and excellence in nursing education. For more information about the college, including its undergraduate and graduate nursing programs, visit the Web site: www.nursing.arizona.edu.

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