UW News

January 3, 2008

Marla Salmon chosen as dean of UW School of Nursing

News and Information

University of Washington Provost Phyllis Wise announced the she has selected Marla Salmon, currently professor and dean of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, as the next dean of the top-ranked UW School of Nursing, effective Oct. 1.

Salmon will be the Robert G. and Jean A. Reid Endowed Dean. Her appointment is subject to approval of the Board of Regents.

“Marla Salmon has outstanding leadership experience in nursing, education, practice, and research,” says UW Provost Phyllis Wise. “She is dedicated to the field of nursing and was once considered the ‘nation’s Head Nurse,’ when she served as director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Nursing. We’re looking forward to having her lead a school that already enjoys an international reputation for its excellence.”

Salmon says, “The University of Washington School of Nursing is an extremely important and unique resource for the improvement of health in the U.S. and around the world. It is this promise that is most exciting to me as I look to my future at the UW.” Salmon also expressed her excitement about returning to the West Coast, where she spent her childhood in rural northern California.

Salmon holds an appointment as professor of health policy and management and director of the Lillian Carter Center of International Nursing at Emory. She has served as dean since 1999.

She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Portland in political science in 1971 and a bachelor of science in nursing from Portland in 1972. She was awarded a doctor of science from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1977, and received a master of science from the University of Portland School of Nursing in 1999. Salmon also holds honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Nebraska and the University of Portland and studied as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cologne in Germany.

She was assistant professor in the University of Minnesota School of Public Health from 1978 to 1982 and associate professor at Minnesota from 1982 to 1986. During her service at University of Minnesota, Salmon directed both the Public Health Nursing Program and the Public Health Nursing Policy Center at Minnesota. She was associate professor of public health nursing in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1986 to 1991; she also served as chairperson of the curriculum in public health nursing from 1986 to 1992. She was appointed professor of public health nursing at North Carolina in 1991.

Salmon was professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania from 1997 to 1999, also serving as associate dean and director of graduate studies.

Salmon served as the chief nurse for the Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, from 1992 to 1997, as director of the Division of Nursing, Bureau of Health Professions in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1991 to 1997, and chaired the National Advisory Council for Nurse Education and Practice. Salmon was also a member of the White House Taskforce on Healthcare Reform.

Salmon is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and serves on the board of trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the boards of directors for the Institute for the International Education of Students and the National Center for Healthcare Leadership. She is currently a member of the Nursing Commission for the Joint Commission on Healthcare Accreditation and the editorial board for books at Sigma Theta Tau International, the honor society for nursing. She has served on the editorial boards of many professional journals, including the International Journal of Nursing Scholarship and Clinical Effectiveness in Nursing. Salmon has recently been invited to serve on the National Institute of Health’s Nursing Advisory Council for the National Institute for Nursing Research.

Salmon’s scholarship has focused on national and international workforce policy and development. She is past chair of the World Health Organization’s Global Advisory Group on Nursing and Midwifery, provides ongoing consultation to the Commonwealth Health Ministers Secretariat on Nursing and Midwifery and the Caribbean Health Minister’s Regional Nursing Body, as well as a number of other international organizations and governments.

For more than 20 years, the University of Washington School of Nursing has been ranked America’s number one nursing school, including 13 years atop the U.S News & World Report list, which began ranking nursing schools in 1993. The rankings have been based upon the quality of the school’s faculty and their research, its graduates, the school’s curriculum, and its community partnerships.

Salmon’s salary will be $337,000.