A dean with global reach

Yale University

New nursing dean Ann Kurth ’90MSN has a background in public health. View full image

“Better health for all.” The Yale School of Nursing’s motto may sound “bland,” admits Ann Kurth ’90MSN, but there is “tremendous energy embedded in that phrase.” Kurth aims to bring her own energy to the school when she becomes dean in January.

The nursing school has long been known both for educating practitioners and for research. Kurth, an epidemiologist whose own research has focused on HIV prevention and reproductive health, brings an expertise in the growing field of global health, an area in which she says she wants to add new faculty.

Among her other goals is improving financial aid so that graduates can work in underserved communities without being burdened by debt. Kurth says one approach to reducing debt is shifting the Master’s of Science in Nursing program from two academic years to 15 straight months, in order to “shorten and streamline the time spent during degree programs by reducing redundancies in content.”

Currently a professor of nursing, medicine, and public health at New York University, Kurth received her master’s in nursing from Yale, a master’s in public health from Columbia, and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Washington. Until the Cure (1993), a book she edited that developed out of her thesis at Yale, was one of the first published on women and HIV.

In an interview about new appointments (“Help Wanted,” September/October) President Peter Salovey ’86PhD highlighted Kurth’s “passion” about nursing research, education, and practice, as well as her diverse academic background. “The fact that she could be the kind of person who would be very much a bridge among various parts of the university,” Salovey said, “made her additionally appealing to me as a candidate.”