VCU School of Nursing associate dean receives UVA Distinguished Alumni Award
Debra Barksdale, Ph.D., FNP-BC, CNE, FAANP, FAAN, ANEF, associate dean of academic affairs and Nursing Alumni Endowed Professor at the VCU School of Nursing, recently received the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Nursing’s Distinguished Alumni Award, the school’s highest honor to recognize alumni for their contributions to the nursing profession.
A nationally known educator, researcher, practitioner and advocate for improving health care, Barksdale has provided leadership to impact nursing education and health care at the national level. The only nurse appointed to the Board of Governors for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), she is a former Department of Health and Human Services Primary Health Care Policy Fellow. Barksdale is also an alumna of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellows Program and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Wharton Executive Leadership Program. She is past president of the National Organization of Nurses Practitioner Faculties, where she led initiatives for enhancing nurse practitioner education in M.S.N. and DNP programs.
Barksdale has published numerous articles and has presented nationally and internationally. Her research focuses on stress and cardiovascular disease in the African-American community.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from UVA, master’s degree in nursing from Howard University, post-master’s certificate in teaching from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan.
