Experienced administrator to head School of Nursing

Anne Bavier, currently dean of the School of Nursing at St. Xavier University in Chicago, has been selected as the next dean of UConn’s School of Nursing.

Her appointment, the result of an extensive national search headed by pharmacy dean Robert McCarthy, is effective Aug. 17.

Bavier served as assistant dean for development, alumni, and external relations, and then assistant dean for planning and external relations at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, one of the leading schools of nursing in the country, from 1999 to 2003, before assuming the deanship at St. Xavier University in 2004.

She has taught on the faculties of St. Xavier University, Emory University, Yale University, and Georgia State University.

Bavier also brings to her new post a dozen years of experience in leadership roles at federal health care agencies, including being the deputy director of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Research on Women’s Health.

“Dr. Bavier is an adept academic administrator with a proven talent for rapidly advancing institutions through strong, strategic initiatives,” says Provost Peter J. Nicholls.

“Her extensive background in university settings and within federal health care agencies positions her well to help our nursing faculty maximize its engagement in scholarly research. Both President Austin and I are pleased that we attracted one of the very best nursing deans in the country to UConn.”

Bavier says she is impressed by the faculty’s “palpable energy and commitment to the profession. Also, I find UConn’s academic leaders are a thoughtful, reflective group, respectful of the different disciplines at the University and united in common goals.”

Among her accomplishments as dean at St. Xavier University, Bavier quadrupled faculty publications and scholarly presentations, increased the school’s grant funding by 50 percent, and dramatically expanded funding for disadvantaged undergraduate nursing students.

At Emory University, Bavier was instrumental in securing the largest single gift ever – $5 million – and funding for the first endowed professorship in nursing.

As a deputy director at NIH, she oversaw a $17.5 million budget related to research on women’s health; represented the agency on major federal policy committees; and led the development of new funding approaches to enhance research on women’s health.