Three New Tenure-Track Faculty Appointed

Dean Kristen Swanson reports that the School of Nursing will have three outstanding new tenure line faculty joining us in August. Each of them brings exciting new expertise to our research and teaching mission.

Dr. Jennifer Leeman will move from her current appointment as Research Associate Professor in the Research Support Center to Assistant Professor, tenure line, in the Health Care Environments Division. Her research, focused on comparative effectiveness, will guide consumers and providers alike in identifying what works to keep people healthy, manage chronic conditions, and prevent or treat disease.

Dr. Jia-Rong Wu will join the Adult and Geriatric Health Division as an Assistant Professor, tenure line. She is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Kentucky in Lexington where her research has focused on adherence to drug therapies in adult cardiac patients, strategies to monitor adherence, and the impact of lapses in adherence on cardiac outcomes. Her research will help inform patients and families on the reasons why they must take their medicines as prescribed. Her work should ultimately lead to guidelines on what to do if a dose is missed.

Dr. Shawn Kneipp will join the Health Care Environments Division. She is currently a tenured associate professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Her initial UNC appointment will be as Visiting Associate Professor. She will submit her materials this Fall to the Appointment/Promotion/Tenure Committee to be considered for an appointment as a tenured Associate Professor. Dr. Kneipp’s federally funded research focuses on how the welfare system impacts women’s health. Her work has included exploring how policy (eg, welfare to work) impacts women’s well being, striving to understand women’s experiences while in the welfare system, and community based interventions to support women’s health while on welfare.