Nursing dean awarded endowed deanship

Nancy Woods, dean of the UW School of Nursing, became the first recipient of the Reid Endowed Deanship in Nursing last month.

[HTML_REMOVED]Nursing by the Numbers[HTML_REMOVED]

[HTML_REMOVED]This gift will yield $150,000 a year to provide support for the School of Nursing.

[HTML_REMOVED]Woods has received honorary doctorates from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Haifa in Israel and Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

[HTML_REMOVED]According to an American Association of Colleges of Nursing report, U.S. nursing schools turned away 41,683 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2005 due to insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors and budget constraints.

[HTML_REMOVED]According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (November 2005), more than 1.2 million new and replacement nurses will be needed by 2014.

Compiled by Chris Paredes

Dr. Woods has been dean of the UW School of Nursing since 1998.

UW alumni Robert and Jean Reid made the $3.5 million donation to create the endowment in support of Woods' leadership at the school.

"There are different types of gifts," said Norm Arkans, executive director of UW media relations and communications. "One type is a ... donation for the School of Nursing's [general] needs ... an endowment is an investment. The principle will always be there, and will generate income of 5 percent a year."

Since 1984, nursing schools across the nation have been ranked approximately every 5 years and the UW School of Nursing has been ranked first every year.

"This gift [will] help the school provide continued outstanding leadership," said Lia Unrau, communications director at the School of Nursing. "The funds can be used for special strategic initiatives that advance the school. This gift supports the School of Nursing dean on the UW Seattle campus ... [but] will not affect the UW Tacoma campus."

The Reids' donation was based on Woods' leadership at the school.

"We were inspired by Nancy's innovative leadership and her passion for the field of nursing and the UW School of Nursing," said Jean Reid in a press release. "She has shown us the level of greatness that can be achieved when the right leader is matched with the right institution. Now we want to ensure that both she and future deans of her caliber are well supported financially, so that they can take the school to even greater heights [HTML_REMOVED] including its contributions to solving global health crises."

Woods has served as president of the American Academy of Nursing and the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research.

She was also a member of the National Advisory Council on Nursing Research for the National Institute of Nursing Research and was elected to the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences.

This is the third endowed nursing deanship in the nation, after University of Pennsylvania and Villanova University, as well as the second endowed deanship at the UW, the first being a $4 million deanship established by the School of Engineering in 2005.

"The funds enhance salary or support research and other professional activities of the dean and his or her students," Unrau said. "The funds [can] help attract and retain world-class scholars and leaders."

The money will also help the UW continue to attract high-caliber faculty to the school, Arkans said.

"It ensures resources are available for us to have the top [nursing] dean when Dean Woods retires," he said.

Reach reporter Chris Paredes at news@thedaily.washington.edu.