Dean, College of Nursing University of Rhode Island | Kingston, Rhode Island We are pleased to announce the appointment of Danny Willis, DNS, R.N., FAAN, as dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Rhode Island, effective January 2, 2024. Prior to this role, Willis served as dean of the Saint Louis University Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing.A psychiatric mental health nursing expert, Willis began his clinical career in 1990 as a staff nurse in the adult and geriatric psychiatry department at Touro Infirmary, and in the child psychiatry unit at CPC Coliseum Medical Center, both in New Orleans. He served as charge nurse and clinical coordinator at Touro before moving to New England to join the psychiatric mental health nursing faculty at Boston College and also served as an affiliate nurse scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.A respected leader nationally, Willis has served as chair of the American Psychiatric Nursing Association Research Council and the American Academy of Nursing Expert Panel on Nursing Theory Guided Practice.His research—which has been funded by several agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, and published in a range of journals—focuses on nursing promotion of health, well-being, and healing in the aftermath of marginalizing and traumatic experiences. He has garnered broad attention for his work with colleagues on a central unifying focus for the discipline of nursing—“facilitating humanization, meaning, choice, quality of life, and healing in living and dying”—which was published in the journal Advances in Nursing Science.Pam Pezzoli led this search with Katie White, Kristin Benoit, and Melissa Barravecchio.The full press release can be read here.