Mary E. Burman Named Dean of the Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing

March 6, 2008 — Mary E. Burman has accepted the position of dean of the Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Wyoming.

"The College of Health Sciences is very excited to have Mary Burman as dean. She is widely recognized for her many successes in nursing research and education," College of Health Sciences Dean Robert O. Kelley says.

"Her leadership will be central to the advancement of the Whitney School of Nursing," Kelley says. "And her longstanding relationships with other leaders in the field around the state and nation will assure success for the school's programs as they move forward."

Burman earned her Ph.D. in nursing science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1990, her master's degree in community health nursing from that institution in 1986, and a bachelor's in nursing from the University of Minnesota in 1983. Before joining the UW faculty in 1992, Burman served on the faculty of Montana State University.

Her professional experience includes Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; St. Mary's Hospital in Minneapolis; the Whitney Health and Wellness Center in Laramie; and the Laramie Downtown Clinic, of which she is a founding member.

She was interim dean of the UW College of Health Sciences in 2006, served the college as associate dean for academic affairs from 2001-07, and was coordinator of the family nurse practitioner program in the School of Nursing from 1998-2006. Her national reputation was most recently recognized by her appointment as a Fellow of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's executive nurse program.

In addition to the fellowship, she received a Carnegie Scholar Award from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2000, the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners State Award for Excellence in 2002, and the College of Health Sciences Interprofessional Award in 2006.

Burman is the director/co-director of multiple research awards at UW and the author/co-author of more than 30 published manuscripts and a variety of other publications in her field of advanced practice nursing and primary care.

She serves as a reviewer for the Journal for Nurse Practitioners, the Journal of Nursing Education, the Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, and the International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship. She is also a member of the board of directors of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties. She serves on the Rural Health Care Delivery Systems Committee of the Wyoming Health Care Commission and the Wyoming Council for Advanced Practice Nurses.