VCU School of Nursing appoints Amy Salisbury as associate dean of research
VCU School of Nursing has announced the appointment of Amy L. Salisbury, Ph.D., RN, PMH-CNS, BC, a leading nurse scientist and clinician, as associate dean of research, scholarship, and innovation, effective Aug. 1, 2020.
Salisbury, currently an associate professor at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University and a clinical nurse specialist at Women & Infants’ Hospital in Providence, R.I., has contributed significantly to teaching, research and clinical nursing for more than 20 years.
“Dr. Salisbury brings extensive experience with federally funded research and leveraging national collaborations to advance discoveries in health care,” said Jean Giddens, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, professor and dean of the VCU School of Nursing. “I’m confident that she will contribute greatly to our school’s continued advancement as a leading research-intensive nursing school in the nation.”
Salisbury’s research and clinical interests include neurobehavioral development, fetal and infant development, sleep development and disorders, perinatal and infant mental health, prenatal exposures, autism, and child psychopathology. Through her work, she has developed a standardized protocol for fetal neurobehavioral assessment combining ultrasound recorded fetal behaviors and fetal heart rate monitoring, called the Fetal Neurobehavioral Coding System (FENS). The FENS has been used in numerous grant funded projects, including two nationally and one internationally.
Salisbury is currently conducting a National Institute of Mental Health study on fetal and infant neurobehavioral development in relation to maternal depression and antidepressant treatment during pregnancy.
Salisbury said she was drawn to the VCU School of Nursing because “the environment is truly unique in having both the structure and the collective drive needed to support research.”
“I am thrilled and honored to lead and mentor this incredible team of faculty, students and staff in growing research opportunities and collaborations at all levels of academia and across clinical roles that will produce rigorous, high impact discoveries,” she said.
Salisbury has been published in numerous journals and other publications and has presented nationally and internationally. She earned a B.A. in psychiatry with a neuroscience concentration from Clark University, a diploma in nursing from St. Vincent Hospital School of Nursing, an M.S. in child and adolescent psychiatric nursing from the University of Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in biobehavioral sciences, developmental psychobiology from the University of Connecticut. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in child psychiatry at Brown Medical School/Rhode Island Hospital.
Categories Faculty and Staff, Research