Dr. Dena Evans Email & Phone Number

I have used my leadership role as Chief Nurse Administrator (CNA) for the University of North Carolina's School of Nursing to facilitate positive change and growth. I have focused on changing a culture of complacency to one of collaboration; establishing a succession plan to ensure continuity of essential functions; implementing evidence-based, data-driven policies that promote student success; implementing new programs to meet the needs of the community; advocating for the needs of faculty; achieving excellence in financial stewardship; establishing a new strategic vision; hiring highly qualified faculty; engaging in fundraising efforts for student scholarships, faculty research support, expansion of space, and the procurement of equipment, and successfully leading faculty and programs through national accreditation processes. At the local, state, and national levels I have worked with the North Carolina Institute of Medicine to devise a task force to examine nursing workforce issues and am a member of the Board of the North Carolina Future of Nursing Action Coalition. As past President of the North Carolina Council of Higher Education in Nursing. I provide leadership and collaborative opportunities for all North Carolina Deans and Directors to discuss nursing's key issues, including the lack of diversity. As an American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) State Grassroots Liaison, I met with senators and their representatives to advocate for issues important to practicing nurses, public health, and the nursing profession. To date, I have secured over $3.5 million in funding to expand and grow initiatives that increase students' engagement with diverse communities to understand factors affecting equity, access, and health and increase diverse students' success. I also implemented the first holistic admissions process in the College of Health and Human Services. I have had success establishing partnerships that promote nursing workforce diversity and meet the needs of rural, underserved populations including a partnership between the School of Nursing, the University's Research and Economic Development office, and one of the largest recruitment agencies for international nurses in the United States and a successful partnership between multiple community stakeholders to begin the first nurse-led mobile rural health clinic to focus on using students and faculty to help underserved areas of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region achieve health equity, with a focus on the goals of Healthy People 2030.

Listed skills include Teaching, Public Policy, Legal Writing, Research, and 5 others.