Margaret Grey NUR ’76, a Yale School of Nursing research professor and the associate dean for scholarly affairs, will become the nursing school’s next dean Sept. 1, President Richard Levin announced today.

As the new dean, Grey will address the school’s most pressing needs – fundraising and expanding professorships and programs, Levin said. The University had been searching for a new dean for the school since September 2004.

“Margaret Grey has been a leader in strengthening the nursing school over the last 12 years,” Levin said. “She has had an outstanding record of attracting research grants and acting as a mentor for young faculty. With her history here, and as a graduate of the school, she had all the important qualities we were looking for. “

Grey, a world-recognized diabetes expert and pediatric nurse, joined the school’s faculty in 1993. As the principal investigator for numerous studies, Grey has helped secure over $15 million of grant funding, including $313,000 from the National Institutes of Health to prevent type-2 diabetes in New Haven public school students.

Grey said she hopes to mend the rift between research and clinical programs at the nursing school.

“I am well aware that the last few years have been marked by conflict and divisiveness,” Grey said. “I hope to make greater investments in our clinical enterprise and education programs, which have been somewhat neglected because of our expansion of research.”

Levin said Grey could play a central role in resolving tensions at the school.

“It is important that the faculty of research and clinical work are given appropriate support, and that the school community recognizes the value of both,” he said.

The final deanship decision, made only a day before the announcement, was between Grey and two other candidates — one of whom was also from the School of Nursing — nursing school spokesman Ilya Sverdlov said. Stephanie Spangler, the University’s deputy provost for biomedical and health affairs, led the search committee that selected the candidates.

Former deans Catherine Gilliss and Florence Wald were present at the announcement. Gilliss, who now heads the Duke University School of Nursing, was dean of the Yale School of Nursing from 1998 to 2004.

“From her years as a professor and associate dean here, I know Margaret is very well steeped in the issues of the school,” Gilliss said. “I would be very happy to work with and help her in the future.”

Katherine Jones, who acted as interim dean this past year, said she looks forward to taking the fall semester off to catch up on research and work on some publications. She will return to the school in the spring as a professor in a new management policy and leadership masters program designed for registered nurses.

Jones said she has great confidence in Grey’s leadership abilities.

“I am very impressed by her dedication to the school and to science,” she said. “At a time when the campus as a whole is becoming more globally oriented, it is great to have a leader who is known internationally.”

Grey, who earned a BSN from the University of Pittsburgh and doctorate in public health from Columbia University in addition to her MSN from Yale, held a number of positions at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and Columbia before coming to Yale.

She is a former president of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners and is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Diabetes Association.

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