Dr. Debra J. Barksdale will be the next dean of University of North Carolina Greensboro’s School of Nursing and Professor in Family and Community Nursing.
Barksdale is currently a professor of nursing and the associate dean of academic affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she led the revision of a nursing leadership and organizational science concentration and development of a new graduate certificate in healthcare innovation.
She previously served At UNC Chapel Hill for 13 years, where she led the family nurse practitioner program and the doctor of nursing practice program. She was also the first Black faculty member to become full professor in Chapel Hill’s School of Nursing.
A first-generation college student, a certified family nurse practitioner and nurse educator, Barksdale holds a PhD in nursing research from the University of Michigan, an master’s degree from Howard University, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia. She also obtained a post-master’s certificate in teaching from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.