Linda A. McCauley, PhD, RN, FAAN, FRCN, began her appointment as Dean of Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing (NHWSN) in 2009. She has since developed and executed a comprehensive strategic plan to position NHWSN at the forefront of nursing research, education, and policy. This plan has been successful, in large part, because it emphasizes the potential of nurses and nursing students as leaders in healthcare innovation. The School’s Innovation Initiative has enabled remarkable achievements such as the Emory Nursing Learning Center (ENLC), the Center for Data Science, and Project NeLL. Under Dean McCauley’s leadership, the school has risen from its No. 26 ranking in 2011 to its current position as No. 1 in US News and World Report’s “Best Graduate Nursing Schools” guide. The school also holds the No. 2 undergraduate US News and World Report ranking.

Dean McCauley’s own research—for which she has been consistently funded for over two decades—lies at the intersection of nursing and environmental and occupational health sciences. Her longstanding partnership with the Farmworkers Association of Florida involves collaborating with farmworkers to study the health impacts of heat stress (such as kidney disease) in agricultural settings.

Today, she and her team are partnering with communities, experts across disciplines, and organizations across sectors to implement and share the Center’s findings. The National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS), awarded $4 million in 2022 to fund the new phase of this work in a grant titled, the Center for Children’s Health Assessment, Research Translation, and Combating Environmental Racism (CHARTER).

Dean McCauley serves on the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM’s) Governing Council and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC). In 2020, she was named an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing and, in 2016, she was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Hall of Fame. She is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Nursing and the American Academy of Occupational Health Nurses as well. Dean McCauley is thought of as an entrepreneurial leader and is a sought-after expert in nursing business and innovation.

For media inquiries, please contact Tricia Benson

Special Assistant to the Dean and Project Manager:

Margie Hutson
Margie.hutson@emory.edu
(404) 727-7975.  Email preferred

As Chief of Staff and Associate Dean, Tricia Benson oversees the Office of the Dean and is the primary liaison to leadership on strategic and operational issues across the school.  She is responsible for the executive oversight and management of facility operations, communications and marketing, and school administration.  Tricia was instrumental in the planning, construction and opening of the Emory Nursing Learning Center, which includes the school’s state of the art simulation center.

Tricia earned a master’s degree in nursing from the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Vanderbilt University. Prior to the School of Nursing, Tricia held several roles in administration and philanthropy including Director of the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Senior Director of Planned Giving, Annual Fund and Direct Response at the national office of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Director of Foundation Relations at the Human Rights Campaign and Program Director at Camp Sunshine.

Gina Critchet is the Associate Dean for Finance and Strategic Analyst for the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. In this role, she provides overall financial and strategic direction for the total budgetary and fiscal affairs of the school inclusive of planning, monitoring, and controlling the overall financial plans and policies.  Critchet also oversees Human Resources and Information Technology for the School.

Gina earned a master’s degree in business administration from Wagner College and a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sports sciences from the University of Florida. She attained accreditation as a Certified Research Administrator (CRA) from the Research Administrators Certification Council in 2011. She has worked for Emory University since 2012.

Benjamin Harris is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) for the Nell H. Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. In this appointment, he co-leads the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and its mission towards Inclusive Excellence.

For over 16 years, Benjamin has served in various roles leading diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at both large and small institutions of higher education. He began his career at Loyola University Chicago, where he served as coordinator for leadership and program development in the Office of Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. He went on to serve as the Assistant Director for the Center for Black Culture at the University of Delaware. Most recently, he led efforts at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine as the Inaugural Director of the Center for Multicultural Life. During his tenure, he helped lead DEI professional development opportunities for the division of student affairs. In addition, he spearheaded the College’s diversity, social justice, and cultural awareness programming efforts. Benjamin is also a trained facilitator in InterGroup Dialogue and restorative justice conflict management.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and Sociology from Elmhurst University (Formerly Elmhurst College) and a Master of Science degree in English from Illinois State University.

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Margie Hutson is Special Assistant to the Dean and Project Manager for the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. In this role, she is responsible for maintaining the Dean’s calendar, her engagements and travel, the management of documents requiring approval and dissemination, and is a planning leader for special events and projects.

She has 30+ years of experience supporting C-Level executives of both private companies and public corporations.  She is a currently pursing Six Sigma Certification and is a certified Project Management Professional.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Mercer University.

She serves on the Leadership Council, Dean’s Educational Advisory Council, and is a staff leadership member of the Dean’s Advisory Board.

Kim Dupree Jones, PhD, RN, FNP, FAAN, Professor, is a nationally renowned nurse scientist and educator, and the Associate Dean of Academic Advancement. Dr. Jones is a distinguished administrator and researcher with more than three decades of experience nursing education and research. She most recently served as Dean of the School of Nursing at Linfield University in Portland, Oregon. Prior to her appointment at Linfield University, she was a full professor in the School of Nursing at Oregon Health and Sciences University. Her BSN is from University of Tennessee; Her MN (FNP) is from Emory University; Her PhD and post-doctoral training are from Oregon Health & Science University.

Dr. Jones is recognized as a leading expert in fibromyalgia, where her work is cited in national and international treatment guidelines and texts including Up To Date, Cecil’s Textbook of Medicine, Physical Rehabilitation & Medicine, Kelly’s Textbook of Rheumatology and Neurology in Clinical Practice. She is aco-author on The Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR), which is used extensively by major pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Lily, Cypress, Ortho, and Jazz pharmaceuticals as the first of the fibromyalgia-indicated drugs were tested and brough to the FDA. She also holds a patent for a genomics-based peripheral blood marker for fibromyalgia. Her most recent work has two foci: the role of cannabinoids in opioid taper, and photosensitivity as a novel mechanism engaging pain-modulating systems.

Dr. Jones is a prolific author with more than 130 publications and has completed more than 60 scientific studies on fibromyalgia to date with funding from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, multiple foundations and industry.  She is recognized as a leading nurse researcher in pain management and is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.

During her four years as a Dean School of Nursing, Linfield University, she led major changes including moving all second-degree students to a novel 10-week academic calendar and launching a Masters Entry to Professional Nursing program, the first in Oregon. She also oversaw a move from their small historic campus to a 20 acre, 11building campus, with 700% increase in simulation space. She worked with faculty and the Oregon State Board of Nursing to optimize simulation, moving from 22% to 49% (maximum allowable). Working closely with the President and Provost, she successfully led faculty governance changes that included an inaugural Senate model of governance that decentralized Promotion & Tenure, Evaluation, and Curriculum. Follow Dr Jones on Twitter @kjnursingdean and Instagram @deanofnursing.

Dr. Lalita Kaligotla is Professor of the Practice and Senior Assistant Dean. She also serves as the Executive Director for the Lillian Carter Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility. Her work is centered on adaptive leadership, interprofessional education, and civic engagement. She has nearly two decades of experience envisioning and launching leadership and community engagement programs at several leading academic institutions. Her current role includes advancing leadership development and community engagement programming for staff, students, and faculty. She provides leadership and subject matter expertise on several extramurally funded grants to train nursing students and develop the healthcare workforce in Atlanta and across the southeast. She serves as faculty mentor for the Fuld Fellows for Social Responsibility, a program for high achieving nursing students with a commitment to social responsibility. Most recently, she helped start a webinar series, “Conversations from the Edge” for nurse leaders.

In her previous role, Lalita served as Associate Director for the Hart Leadership Program, an endowed leadership development program at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Prior to that, she was at the Georgia Institute of Technology where she implemented interdisciplinary curricular and co-curricular leadership and civic engagement programs. She obtained her doctorate in higher education policy and leadership at the University of Georgia, and an MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. Prior to moving to the United States, she completed graduate training at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, in Mumbai, India, and her undergraduate education at Osmania University, in Hyderabad, India.

Dr. Laura Kimble is Associate Dean for Academic Operations and Clinical Professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing.  In a 30-year career as a nurse educator and researcher, she has spent the majority of her career at Emory University with 16 years of service.  She previously served as Professor and Piedmont Healthcare Endowed Chair of Nursing at Mercer University. Dr. Kimble is a Fellow of the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Nursing. As an administrator, Dr. Kimble has a strong interest and expertise in faculty development and mentoring, particularly mentoring junior faculty. 

Dr. Kimble’s research focuses on understanding the biologic basis for patient symptoms using metabolomics and other methods. Her prior work as a symptom scientist primarily focused on women with chronic symptoms of ischemic heart disease and instruments she has developed to measure symptoms and health outcomes have been used by researchers nationally and internationally. More recently, her research focuses on patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and addressing health disparities around symptoms and quality of life in this population. Dr. Kimble's research has been funded by National Institute of Nursing Research/NIH as well as the American Heart Association. She is the author or co-author of multiple data-based articles and abstracts focused on the symptom experience in persons with chronic illness and symptom management. As an educator, she has primarily taught at the graduate level with a focus on applied statistics, mixed methods, and instrumentation/ measurement. She also has served as PI or co-PI on multiple HRSA grants to support educational innovations. She has supervised and/or mentored multiple PhD in Nursing students in completing and publishing their dissertations. Dr. Kimble has received honors for both her research and teaching, including the Georgia Nurses Association Researcher of the Year Award, the Outstanding Alumna Award for Research from the University of Kentucky and the Teacher/Scholar Award from Emory University. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Professional Nursing and as a Board Member of the Rheumatology Nurses Society.

Dr. Muirhead is a Professor, clinical track, and joined the School of Nursing in September 2012. She received her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a post-master's certificate from the University of Massachusetts, a master's degree in nursing from the University of South Alabama, with a concentration in Community Health and Nursing Education, and a bachelor's degree in nursing from William Carey College. She leads the development and strategic vision of the school’s effort to build a diverse community that values the importance of equity and inclusivity. She has practiced as an APRN for greater than 25 years and has an extensive background focused on advancing health equity among underrepresented populations and Veterans’ health care. As a recognized national expert and consultant to numerous advisory boards, national groups, and public health organizations, she has contributed to national health recommendations, state nursing guidelines, and standardized competency-based nurse practitioner curriculum. She serves on national Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion workgroups to help inform educational initiatives that build capacity for a diversified faculty and nursing workforce. She has been recognized for her extraordinary leadership in nursing practice, education, and policy as a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nurses.

Laika Steiger, MBA, FACHE has over 17 years of healthcare operations experience and has proven expertise in managing large diverse teams and multi-million-dollar projects. She has led healthcare system implementations, large-scale training initiatives and multi-phase construction projects.

In her current role as the Associate Dean for Clinical Practice Operations and the Executive Director of the Emory Nursing Learning Center, Laika leads several areas for the School of Nursing including the Office of Clinical Affairs, Emory Nursing Experience, the Emory Nursing Professional Development Center (ENPDC), the Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nursing Education Center (WOCNEC), and the Simulation Program at the Emory Nursing Learning Center (ENLC). As the lead, Laika manages the strategic planning process, sets performance metrics and ensures financial stewardship; aligning all activities to meet the needs of the NHWSN programs. She also works collaboratively within the school and university to foster an environment of academic excellence, collaboration, diversity, equity, and inclusiveness.

Previously, Laika led the training team at WellStar Health System as it's Assistant Vice President of Organizational Learning Operations. In that role, Laika led the system's programs in Clinical Learning, Leadership Development, Technology Training, Continuing Medical Education, Patient Education and Library Services for over 20,000 team members and 2,000 physicians.

Laika has a Master’s degree in Business Administration, with a focus on Leadership, and a Bachelor's degree in Business Management. She is also a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Dr. Beth Ann Swan is Professor, Clinical Track, Associate Dean for Education, PhD Program Director, the Charles P. and Peggy Evans Endowed Distinguished Professor in Simulation and Innovation at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, and Co-Director of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Interprofessional Education and Clinical Practice Office at Emory University. Dr. Swan is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, past president of the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN), and a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow. She is nationally and internationally known for her research in health care and nursing. She was an early leader in exploring the impact of changing health care delivery models on outcomes of care. Throughout her career, Dr. Swan has been an advocate for engaging consumers in their health care, promoting quality care coordination and safe care transitions, and creating innovative evidence-based practices to improve care.

As the principal investigator on extramural funded grants, Dr. Swan has provided leadership and mentorship on ground-breaking projects impacting both nursing practice and interprofessional education. With her entrepreneurial mindset and belief in consumer-centered care and engagement, her latest research is focused on simulation and virtual reality space building an interprofessional collaborative education model that leverages virtual reality in support of achieving interprofessional and social determinants of health competencies during transitions of care, as well as examining feasibility, usability, and workload when engaging in artificial intelligence (AI) enabled simulation to address public health challenges. Dr. Swan is leading the Atlanta Region Community Health Workforce Advancement (ARCHWAy) Program, a HRSA funded project to expand the public health workforce by training new and existing community health workers.

Dr. Swan was a member of the Veterans Health Administration Choice Act Blue Ribbon Panel and was a member of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Planning Committee for Preparing Registered Nurses for New Roles in Primary Care. Her numerous publications cover a wide range of topics focused on primary and ambulatory care, innovations for education and practice, and health care policy. Dr. Swan developed the major contribution to care coordination and transition management, the national curriculum known as CCTM. She is the co-editor of Care Coordination and Transition Management Core Curriculum, 2nd Edition, co-edited the book Perspectives in Ambulatory Care Nursing, and co-edited the book Integrating a Social Determinants of Health Framework into Nursing Education. Dr. Swan is the author of the November 2012 Health Affairs' Narrative Matters Feature, A Nurse Learns Firsthand That You May Fend For Yourself After A Hospital Stay.

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Drenna Waldrop, PhD is Professor and the Associate Dean for Research at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, with a joint appointment with the Department of Behavioral and Sciences and Health Education Studies in the Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Waldrop is an internationally known researcher in HIV/AIDS and is Co-Director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Developmental Core. She received her PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Memphis, her M.S. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi, and her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Alabama. Dr. Waldrop received specialized training in neuropsychology and behavioral research which she has applied to her long-standing funding with the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Waldrop’s primary research and scholarly interest is in treatment adherence, cognitive & affective symptoms, and health literacy among persons living with HIV/AIDS. She has been Principal Investigator on multiple NIH grants and over the past 20 years has led and collaborated on numerous studies investigating the overarching symptoms associated with HIV infection, including health literacy and cognition, and their impact on health disparities among persons living with HIV. Her research and findings have led to the expansion and understanding of the essential role that cognitive impairment and health literacy plays in health disparities and in self-management of HIV. Her international work includes collaborative studies in northern and southern India to evaluate the effects of Clade C HIV virus, and in Argentina to facilitate health literate and patient-centered care encounters. She has collaborated with neuro-endocrinologists to study HIV/AIDS stress-response and worked with brain imaging specialists to evaluate the effects of HIV infection and drug abuse on brain metabolism. Her most recent research studies the effects of aerobic exercise on cognitive function among PLWH (MPI with Dr. Rebecca Gary) and she is also investigating virtual and mobile app-based interventions to address chronic disease and medication adherence. Dr. Waldrop provides overarching research strategy for the school of nursing, facilitates growth of the faculty research portfolio, and directs the research operations of the school. Dr. Waldrop oversees the Office of Nursing Research and the school’s research administrative services

Adam Malm, MBA, serves as the Senior Assistant Dean for Operations and Registrar's Office at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. He leads the School’s Registrar, Operations, and Administrative Support departments. In his role, Adam oversees the daily activities and support needs for all three Emory Nursing locations. As lead of the Registrar’s Office, Adam maintains the annual academic calendars and schedules, oversees prerequisite management, curriculum support and student registration. He is responsible for all operational facets including event management, maintenance, facilities, space, and operational logistics. He leads the administrative team in their daily support of research and clinical faculty. Adam provides on-going training, coaching and professional development for his entire staff. In addition, Adam is also the School’s Safety Captain, Wellness Chair, and Engagement Lead and has the pleasure of leading the All-Staff meetings.

Adam Malm received his Bachelor of Science in International Affairs from the Florida State University as well as a Master of Business Administration from the University of Georgia. Adam also attended Emory University’s Continuing Education program where he earned both an Essentials in Management certificate and his Human Resources certificate. Adam is a Level III HR Representative for Emory University. In 2016, Emory University recognized Adam with the Award of Distinction, which is the highest honor for staff. He was also the recipient of the Excellence in Leadership Award in 2017, Excellence in Innovation Award in 2019, and the Dean’s Award in 2023.