Job Openings >> University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Nursing- Associate Dean for Research
University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Nursing- Associate Dean for Research
Summary
Title:University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Nursing- Associate Dean for Research
ID:1106
Description
Academic Career & Executive Search is pleased to assist the University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Nursing in their search for an Associate Dean for Research (ADR).

This is an extraordinary opportunity to join a College of Nursing (CON) with a strong history of research prominence on campus. The CON has invested in a cadre of research-focused individuals who are energetic, passionate, and driven to position themselves for large external funding. Their researchers are building dynamic, multidisciplinary research teams across campuses, health systems, and communities. Their researchers strive for innovative and impactful research that will transform care.

The Associate Dean for Research will lead the CON research enterprise on the Medical Center Campus and within the University System. The candidate they are looking for brings a broad vision for expanding and growing research capitalizing on the richness of UNMC and the University of Nebraska system including the College’s five divisions across the state (3 divisions in rural Nebraska). The candidate demonstrates strong leadership and communication skills to promote the tripartite mission of the University. The ideal candidate is an accomplished researcher with major federal and/or foundation funding experience who is committed to academic research excellence, and mentoring faculty and students. The ADR position includes the opportunity for an Endowed Chair appointment.

General Position Description
General areas of responsibility include: research development and mentoring of faculty, communication and representation to promote the research mission, and administration of the Niedfelt Nursing Research Center (NNRC).

Responsibilities of the Position
  • Provides vision and leadership for the research mission of the CON.
  • Promotes nursing research for the campus, community, and professional organizations at the national and international level.
  • Facilitates research development and mentoring for faculty of the CON.
  • Leads efforts to recruit research faculty who align with priorities of the CON and UNMC.
  • Works to support the Associate Deans and Division Assistant Deans to the tripartite faculty role of teaching, research, and service.
  • Participates in faculty evaluation reviews of research and negotiation of research effort allocation with Mentee, Mentor, Assistant Dean/supervisor for research faculty.
  • Maintains an active research program through scholarly publications and a national presence.
  • Serves on the CON Nursing Research Committee, Executive Committee, Center for Patient, Family and Community in Community Engagement of Chronic Condition (CENTRIC), PhD Affairs Committee, and UNMC Vice Chancellor of Research Resources Board.
  • Administers the Neidfelt Nursing Research Center, providing research support services to faculty.
  • Recommends budget and resources to the CON Leadership for meeting the research mission.
  • Represents the Dean at designated meetings and, as needed, at regional, national, and international professional associations.
Appointment Requirements
  • Doctorally prepared researcher (doctorate in nursing preferred)
  • Full Professor or satisfies criteria for Full Professor
  • Demonstrates a successful program of research with major external funding and scholarship
  • Leadership experience in academia or professional organizations
  • Excellent interpersonal, communication, and mentoring skills

Organizational Relationships
The Associate Dean for Research collaborates with the Dean, the College’s other leaders, faculty, and inter-professional colleagues in accomplishing the College’s research mission and moving the College toward its strategic and long-range goals. S/he reports to the Dean and serves at the Dean’s request. S/he is the College’s liaison with the UNMC Vice Chancellor for Research and serves on University research committees and in inter-professional research and academic initiatives.

The Associate Dean for Research collaborates with other members of the Executive Council and s/he works closely with the Nursing Research Committee and PhD Affairs Council. S/he works closely with the Associate Dean for Academic Programs, the Associate Dean for Transformational Practice and Partnerships, the Director of CENTRIC and the Director of Administration & Operations to creatively design, implement, and evaluate programs that integrate and support the College’s tripartite missions.

About the College of Nursing

The UNMC CON is comprised of 5 campuses across Nebraska, border-to-border. The Omaha Division serves as the main campus and is positioned within the UNMC campus. The remaining CON divisions are Lincoln, Norfolk, Kearney, and West Nebraska (Scottsbluff). Two Divisions (Omaha and Lincoln) are urban and three are rural (Scottsbluff, Norfolk and Kearney) locations; all 5 communities have highly diverse populations ranging from Native American to recent immigrants from across the world. These CON divisions have invested years in developing important relationships, building partnerships, fostering trust with delicate or inaccessible groups, and learning about different and impactful health issues in their respective localities. UNMC-CON is the largest and most far-reaching of UNMC’s six colleges, with the most students (over 1,000 at undergraduate and graduate levels), the most programs (Bachelor’s, Master’s, Post-Master's, Doctor of Nursing Practice, Doctor of Philosophy, and Continuing Nursing Education), and the most divisions. Additionally, UNMC-CON ranks in the top tier of U.S. nursing schools.

UNMC-CON is uniquely situated and is logistically and geographically inclined to perform breakthrough research. Because of its operational positioning within UMMC’s campus, and its accompanying administrative entities, UNMC-CON has a strong and successful history in collaborating with other UNMC colleges. Recently, UNMC-CON partnered with UNMC’s College of Medicine, College of Public Health, and College of Pharmacy to establish UNMC as a regional and national training resource in the conduct of comparative effectiveness research and patient-centered outcomes research addressing relevant healthcare issues affecting rural and underserved communities.

Neidfelt Nursing Research Center (NNRC)
The NNRC provides extensive support for faculty and students in their research efforts. The NNRC includes research offices, a conference room, a statistical and data analysis room, and a grants resources area. There is a library of books on measurement, research methods, and statistics, as well as a sizable collection of instruments for collection of bio-behavioral data. The ADR is the Director of the NNRC and is responsible for facilitating faculty research and various research activities, including, but not limited to, consultation on grant and manuscript writing, assistance with initiating a research program, advice on managing ongoing research projects, coordination of mock reviews, and guidance in seeking funding on all campuses. A full-time Administrator and Administrative Coordinator assume a major role in the preparation of research grant applications and in post-award administration of grant budgets, as well as identifying possible funding sources. Two doctorally prepared statisticians are available for research collaboration and consultation. They provide support on questions of research design, methods (including power analysis), and statistical analyses during all phases of project development, from conception of the idea to delivery of the final report. Additional biostatistical resources are available at UNMC’s College of Public Health for consultation on research design, methods, and statistical analysis.

College of Nursing research faculty includes nationally recognized teachers, researchers and practitioners with a prodigious record of scholarly publication and research grants. Many are well-known authorities often cited for advancing their fields – especially in health promotion and symptom management in cancer, cardiac , and rural health and underserved populations.

CENTRIC Center – Center for Patient, Family, and Community Engagement in Chronic Care Management.
July 2016, The University of Nebraska Board of Regents approved the Center for Patient, Family, and Community Engagement in Chronic Care Management (CENTRIC). The focus of the center is to build infrastructure to expand and fund pilot research projects that help Nebraskans learn to live with their chronic conditions so that they stay healthy, stay in their homes longer, and reduce health care costs. This new center is an extension of a P20 Center grant entitled Interdisciplinary Healthy Heart Center: Linking Rural. As part of the CENTRIC, there is a technology and common metric committee, mentoring committee, professional development committee, post-doc committee, and scientific advancement committee to support research efforts at UNMC. CENTRIC funds research focused on chronic conditions with self-management interventions using technology to promote the treatment plan, reduce symptoms, and improve quality of life (QOL). Funding is available for pilot work and just -in-time accelerator funding.

About the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC)
UNMC is composed of 7 Colleges (Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Allied Health, Public Health, and the Graduate College) and 2 Institutes (Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center/Eppley Research Institute and the Munroe Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation). The UNMC main campus is located on an 80-acre campus in the center of Omaha, Nebraska, but serves several additional campuses across the state: Lincoln (Colleges of Dentistry and Nursing), Kearney (Colleges of Nursing and Allied Health), Scottsbluff (Colleges of Dentistry and Nursing), and Norfolk (College of Nursing). Research laboratories are housed in 12 buildings on the Omaha campus and one in Lincoln (College of Dentistry), for a total of more than a million square feet of laboratory space. The UNMC library is a National Library of Medicine Regional Center.

UNMC has 3,700 students preparing for careers in health and biomedical sciences working alongside 1,300 faculty, including internationally recognized medical researchers and health care professionals, in state-of-the-art facilities.

UNMC is responsible for breakthroughs in diverse areas of peripheral stem cell bone marrow transplantation, new anti-malarial therapies, medical approach to transport, and care of patients infected with Ebola. UNMC’s College of Pharmacy ranks within the top 10 for NIH funding as does the Department of Pharmacology.

Campus Research and Educational Infrastructure

Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center. The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center (FPBCC) is Nebraska’s only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer center and one of only 68 NCI-designated centers in the US. It is a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), an alliance of 27 cancer centers that develop standards and set guidelines for treating patients. FPBCC opened a new building in 2017 that includes the 10-story, 98-laboratory Suzanne and Walter Scott Cancer Research Tower; side by side with the eight-story, 108-bed C.L. Werner Cancer Hospital inpatient treatment center, and a multidisciplinary outpatient center. Initially established as the UNMC Eppley Cancer Institute in 1960, it became an NCI-designated cancer center in 1983 and was renamed with the opening of this privately funded building. The FPBCC includes the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases, which remains focused on fundamental studies to understand the causes, improve diagnosis, and develop new approaches for treatment and prevention of cancer.

Hixson-Lied Tower. Built in 1999, the 14-story Hixson-Lied Tower was a joint project of UNMC and Nebraska Medicine aimed at providing researchers and health-care professionals greater opportunities for interaction and collaboration around transplantation care. It includes 4 floors of biomedical research laboratories, clinical space designed around an innovative shared practice model, one of the first of its kind, as well as inpatient and outpatient facilities. Research conducted in this space is broad: heart failure and vascular disease, wound repair, pain and drug abuse, diagnostics development, cancer, and infectious diseases.

Eppley Cancer Institute (ECI). Constructed in 1963, this eight-story building provides biomedical research laboratories for cancer and some shared research resources. The facility was renovated with a NIH C06 grant awarded in 2010 to update its research laboratories, clinical trial space, and administrative suites encompassing 52,900 square feet at a total project cost of $11.89 million. The ECI has 31 faculty members with broad expertise in translational cancer research.

Davis Global Center for Interprofessional Experiential Center for Enduring Learning (iEXCEL).
This building, which opened late 2019, is the headquarters for the iEXCEL program. It is a 191,884 sq ft state- of-the art interprofessional clinical simulation facility focused on improving the outcomes of care by emphasizing interprofessional collaboration and experiential learning. iEXCEL offers a wide range of simulation technologies including augmented and virtual reality, an interactive digital wall, a 3DCAD Wall, an iBench, and HoloLens for holographic representations. The simulation spaces (e.g., a hospital and operating room, a biocontainment room) and the virtual reality/augmented reality studio offer opportunities for team performance research and research focused on changing perception or behavior, such as research focused on PTSD and addressing phobias. New educational tools will be developed in this facility, as well as opportunities to test educational methods and surgical tools on lightly embalmed cadavers in the anatomy suite. Other features include a Holographic Theater (130 seats) with a holographic stage that can produce extraordinary life-like virtual images, including telepresence; the iEXCEL Helix, a 280-degree curved screen immersive environment, displaying 2D and 3D images individually or simultaneously; iEXCEL iSpace, a five-sided (walls + floor + ceiling) 3D laser immersive environment that will expand learning and research and development opportunities; a Simulated Acute Care Unit that includes a simulated operating room, nursing station, labor and delivery room, patient rooms, pediatric care unit and debriefing rooms; a Simulated Critical Care Unit comprised of a simulated emergency department, trauma unit, intensive care unit, patient rooms, imaging room and debriefing rooms; Prebriefing, Debriefing Rooms and Procedure Labs with breakout spaces that allow for session preparation, review and discussion of recorded sessions, and areas for skill-specific learning; a Surgical Skills Suite with 20 operating room bays and a command center to record and broadcast sessions locally, nationally and globally; a Hybrid Operating and Interventional Suite where highly technical surgical training sessions are conducted; and a Procedural Surgical Skills Labs where learners use surgical simulators to practice and improve essential skills such as hand-eye coordination, depth perception and suturing. Emerging and Special Pathogen Facilities include an emergency operations center for emergency management simulation, as well as twenty-bed quarantine facility and a six-bed biocontainment training unit. The Center's unique design promotes interdisciplinary collaboration, team training, and the practice of care.


Scientific Core Facilities and Shared Resources

Great Plains Center for Clinical and Translational Research. The vision of the GP-IDeA CTR is to lead national and global efforts to develop and deliver effective, cost-efficient and sustainable clinical and translational research that improves rural health and reduces health disparities. The NIH-NIGMS IDeA-funded center is based at UNMC and includes 9 institutions in Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Kansas. The primary objective of the GP-IDeA CTR is to develop a robust, networked research infrastructure to nurture, develop, and guide our clinical and translational research investigators, as well as build collaborations among them and with community members across the northern Great Plains. The GP-IDeA CTR fosters partnerships with other IDeA-CTR entities to share best practices in CTR, and become more competitive for research awards as they better understand the development of disease and the means for its prevention. There is the opportunity for our faculty to become scholars in the CTR and also received pilot funding and early career development opportunities.

Center for Collaboration on Research Design and Analysis (CCORDA). The mission of the CCORDA is to provide expertise in the quantitative sciences, including biostatistics, epidemiology, and health services research, and to coordinate the collaborative design, planning, conduct, analysis and interpretation of laboratory, clinical, and public health research studies. In addition, the center will provide educational training opportunities for quantitative sciences graduate students and educational opportunities for public health, clinical, and translational investigators.

Center for Reducing Health Disparities. The Center for Reducing Health Disparities is a partner in research endeavors focused on underserved or health disparate populations including minorities and rural populations. The Center is available to provide a number of services to facilitate research including. consultation on study design of projects targeting underserved communities, Spanish translation services for IRB approved research related documents, and promotion and enrollment into research studies.

Clinical Research Center. The Clinical Research Center (CRC) is an outpatient clinical research facility with skilled research nurses and a core laboratory which can also assists with inpatient protocols. More than 50 protocols and 100 investigators, on average, are supported by CRC resources. Located on the third floor of the University Hospital the CRC serves as a resource for the teaching and training of medical students, residents, fellows and other health providers in the skills of clinical investigation through a sponsored annual clinical research course, a quarterly clinical research coordinators workshop, review of fellow-sponsored research applications and individualized instruction on research billing.

Clinical Trials Management System. OnCore was purchased to provide a centralized resource for conducting, coordinating and overseeing single and multi-site clinical trials. Clinical, financial, and regulatory operations are incorporated into this enterprise-wide resource.

Clinical Research ANalysis Environment (CRANE) and the Greater Plains Collaborative (GPC) research network. UNMC established a deidentified data set from patients using Nebraska Medicine facilities. The data set includes electronic health record data, cancer registry data, social determinates of health and data extracted from the pathology information system. The data are available for reuse by eligible investigators to conduct feasibility studies, comparative effectiveness research and prospective cohort studies. The systems represents data in standardized information models including the PCORnet Common Data Model, the ACT network i2b2 metadata schema and as both SAS and relational database records. UNMC is part of University of Kansas Medical Center-led Greater Plains Collaborative (GPC) research network. This PCORI-funded network links electronic health records to allow members, including UNMC and 12 academic medical centers across a 10 state area, to request data from multiple electronic health records for larger data sets. GPC provides access to a clinical data set using established governance and query mechanisms. Biobanks, available at all sites, are able to select samples that might be relevant across the network.

Data Safety Monitoring Boards (DSMBs). There are two standing DSMBs available to investigators, the Cancer standing DSMB and the noncancer standing DSMB. These boards work with the PI to provide additional content experts beyond DSMB, human subjects research, ethics, and biostatistics expertise. These activities are sponsored by the Cancer Center and the Vice Chancellor for Research Office, respectively.

Electronic Health Record Data Access Core. The Electronic Health Records Data Access Core facility provides research access to electronic health data from our health care information system (EPIC and Legacy EHR data). This resource allows rapid assessment of feasibility and data acquisition when considering a clinical study. This core facility provides access to Electronic Health Care data for clinical and translational research. This may include feasibility studies, cross-sectional studies, health outcomes, retrospective data analysis, quality improvement projects, transfer of datasets to a registry, case finding for subject recruitment, and public health research.

Fred & Pamela Buffett Center Clinical Trials Office. The Clinical Trials Office of the UNMC Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center participates in the activation and conduct of clinical cancer research at the Cancer Center. This includes assistance with protocol development, coordination of initial and periodic reviews submitted to the Institutional Review Board, data coordination and collection, and coordinates supervision of appropriate clinical trials by the Audit Committee and the Data and Safety Monitoring Committee.

Genomics Core Research Facility. The UNMC Genomics Core Facility is a comprehensively equipped facility that provides genomic services including DNA Next-Generation, RNA sequencing (mRNA, total RNA, or miRNA), metagenomics including whole genome shotgun sequencing and 6s ribosomal profiling, exome sequencing, and single cell RNA profiling as well as Sanger sequencing. The core operates NextSeq500, NextSeq550, and MiSeq Systems in addition to liquid handling robotics for NGS Library construction, instrumentation for qPCR, quantification and sizing, DNA shearing, and single cell genomics. The facility interacts with the Bioinformatics and System Biology Core for assembly, annotation and mutation detection.

Human Genetics Laboratory. The Human Genetics Laboratory is a full service, CLIA and CAP-certified clinical cytogenetic and molecular genetic laboratory specializing in both constitutional and acquired disorders. Comprehensive genetic testing is combined with personalized clinical consultation to provide the very best in genetic medicine to every client and patient served.

iCaRe2 and other Biorepositories. The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center has consolidated its biorepositories with associated health information into one iCaRe2 platform. They also sponsor a Fresh Frozen tissue repository and formalin fixed tissue blocks, both cancer and normal tissues, for research purposes, all of which are linked to deidentified electronic health record information for accurate selection. Many other groups host biorepositories at UNMC including rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases [VA Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) database/repository, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Autoimmune Diseases Investigator database/repository (RAIN), solid and bone marrow transplant database/repositories, heart failure and cardiovascular disease database/repositories, to name a few].

Institutional Review Board (IRB). In accordance with Health and Human Services Regulations for Protection of Human Subjects (45 CFR 46), four Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) composed of members from a variety of scientific disciplines and individuals from the community, assist investigators in the protection of the rights and welfare of human subjects. The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) IRBs were established to assure the protection of all human subjects in research projects conducted by anyone on the premises of UNMC, Nebraska Medicine, Nebraska Medicine - Bellevue, Children’s Hospital & Medical Center (CH&MC), and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). In addition, the IRBs have oversight for research conducted elsewhere by faculty, students, staff, or other representatives of these institutions.

Nebraska Biobank. The Nebraska Biobank is a Nebraska Research Initiative (NRI) developed joint effort of UNMC and Nebraska Medicine to facilitate research in health care. The Nebraska Biobank is made up of over 100,000 DNA, plasma and serum samples linked to anonymized health information populated by those that opt in when they enter a Nebraska Medicine clinic or hospital unit. Anonymized data from the Electronic Health Record (EHR) includes demographics, diagnoses, lab test results, and medications. Requests are subject to feasibility and scientific review but available to all faculty members from the University of Nebraska (UN) system or graduate students being mentored by a UN faculty. Separate disease specific blood and tissue banks are also available either for identified or deidentified requests with separate feasibility and scientific review processes.

Research IT Office (RITO). This resource was initiated to help investigators with moving data, implementing new technologies that require middleware and/or data connections, or other specialized research IT functions, including new databases and training. The Research IT Office manages the Research Data Capture Database (REDCap) resource on our campus, first developed by Vanderbilt University through the CTSA program. This resource is available as a research data capture tool, particularly for clinical/translational research. Surgical Robotics Laboratory is used to develop and refine surgical robot simulators for evaluating and training medical students and surgeons on robotic surgery techniques.

Tissue Banking Core Facility. The mission of the UNMC Tissue Procurement Shared Resource (TPSR) is to procure and coordinate distribution of fresh frozen human tissue in an optimal state of preservation for requesting investigators without impacting diagnostic quality, accuracy and safety in anatomic pathology. Additional services offered include biospecimen DNA or RNA extraction, sectioning of frozen tissues, short- term tissue culture, cytogenetic/molecular cytogenetic analysis, and tissue preparation via investigator-driven protocols.

Tissue Sciences Facility. The UNMC Tissue Sciences Facility (TSF) was established to provide basic and specialized histology, staining, immunohistochemistry, and imaging services to the research community at UNMC for studies on animal and human tissues. The TSF offers a full range of cost effective services including tissue preparation and fixation, processing, embedding, sectioning, and standard and special stains for paraffin and frozen samples. Additionally, the TSF offers both bright field and fluorescent imaging and high throughput whole slide scanning. There are many software packages available through the TSF for image analysis, reconstruction, and deconvolution as well as technical support for these programs. The resources and services at the TSF are available to all University of Nebraska researchers, as well as outside institutions and industrial users.

Sponsored Programs Administration and Accounting. Sponsored Programs Administration and Accounting (SPA) serves as a focal point through which external support for research, scholarship, public service and creative activities is institutionally promoted, reviewed and approved. SPA assists faculty, staff, and students in identifying potential funding opportunities. It supports project directors in all stages of proposal development, in particular, preparation of the official project budget. It reviews proposals and approves and submits the official proposal, negotiates and accepts awards, authorizes grants accounting and negotiates and establishes sub-recipient agreements.
UNeHealth Corporation. UNeHealth negotiates commercial clinical trial and non-disclosure agreements, providing dedicated resources to efficiently negotiate and execute documents.

UNeMed Corporation. UNeMed Corporation is the technology transfer partner for UNMC faculty and students and plays a role in the business development of many start-up companies as well as business operations of units like the Nebraska Nanomedicine Production Plant. Personnel are available to capture new invention notices and submit patent applications, and licensing specialists help to move technologies toward commercialization, as well as assist and educate inventors on state-wide and other resources for commercialization development.

UNeTecH Corporation. This incubator program helps entrepreneurs develop a start-up company by providing back-end business services, consultation, and access to manufacturing and other services. Its focus is on new devices, and “graduation” occurs when the company has received enough investment that it can launch its own office.


Living in the Area
Omaha, with a population of just over 460,000, is the perfect combination of down-home charm and urban chic. The area offers a stable economy, thriving arts and culture scene and a diverse choice of housing ranging from well-established homes on shaded streets to waterfront urban high rises to newer suburban developments. Rounded out by a low cost of living (10.2% below the national average), unemployment below the national average and attractions and activities for the entire family. The city has been cited as one of the best places live or to raise a family.


Submitting Your Application.
Applications will be reviewed as they are received and should include a cover letter and CV. Inquiries and nominations are treated confidentially and can be sent to Jennifer Muller, Managing Partner with Academic Career & Executive Search: Jennifer@Acesrch.com or call 860-740-2600.


EEO/Affirmative Action Statement:
UNMC is committed to achieving excellence through cultural diversity. Terms of employment are in keeping with University of Nebraska and UNMC policy. UNMC is an equal opportunity employer.


 
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