Christine Kasper Appointed Dean of UNM College of Nursing
Post Filled Following National Search
Christine E. Kasper, PhD, RN, a senior nurse executive in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Nursing Services, has been named dean of the University of New Mexico College of Nursing.
In her Veterans Affairs post, Kasper advises the chief nursing officer on academics, research and policy. She also is a professor in the Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Md.
"Dr. Kasper brings impressive credentials and breadth of experience to her new position," said Paul B. Roth, MD, MS, Chancellor for Health Sciences. "The College of Nursing will benefit from the leadership provided by someone of her stature."
Richard S. Larson, MD, PhD, the Health Sciences Center's executive vice chancellor, described Kasper as "a distinguished scientist who will help guide the growth of the College's educational and research missions."
Kasper was selected in a national search process following the departure of Nancy Ridenour.
Kasper received her PhD at the University of Michigan, where she studied nursing and physiology. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at Rush University in physiology and biophysics, she served as professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California, Los Angeles. She also held the M. Adelaide Nutting Research Chair at Johns Hopkins University.
Kasper has been principal investigator on National Institutes of Health, NASA, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) and Department of Veterans Affairs grants. She has CDMRP funding to study the role of "Desert Dust" metals on the pathobiology of Gulf War Illness. She is also assessing the effects of blast injuries with embedded metal fragments in the military.
Kasper was named to the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame in 2015 for this work. She is the current editor of the Annual Review of Nursing Research, and was the founding editor of Biological Research for Nursing. She is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Nursing and American College of Sports Medicine.