The newly named College of Nursing and Health Innovation reflects the recent consolidation of several health-related programs belonging to the former School of Applied Arts and Sciences (SAAS). Along with the proposed Health Sciences program, the Exercise and Wellness and Nutrition departments have become part of the new college in its mission to become more transdisciplinary.

"Our new name reflects the broadening of our mission to be more inclusive of the other health focused disciplines that now will be part of our college," says Bernadette Melnyk, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Innovation. "This merger will allow us to accelerate inter-professional education and initiatives that will result in exciting academic programming for our students, innovative transdisciplinary research, and more comprehensive health services that will benefit the public.

“The college will serve as a new national model for transdisciplinary collaboration, education, research and clinical practice while continuing to produce the highest caliber of nurses and health professionals who will transform health care and promote the highest level of health for the community, nation and globe.

"The consolidation increases undergraduate enrollment by more than 38 percent to 2,594 and graduate/doctoral enrollment by more than 33 percent to 246. Dr. Craig Thatcher, former dean of the School of Applied Arts and Sciences, has joined the College of Nursing and Health Innovation as executive dean. SAAS has been disestablished as part of the universitywide restructuring.

"Our new organization enables a transdisciplinary approach to health and wellness," Thatcher says. "It eliminates the silos in health education and will create a new generation of health providers and promoters who will work closely together to produce evidence-based quality outcomes for the public.

"A new Healthy Lifestyles Research Center also is being launched as part of the new organization. The new center’s mission is to integrate basic and translational research aimed at understanding the causes for pathologies, correlates and behaviors associated with lifestyle choices. The center will implement and evaluate health promotion programs in practice. From this foundation, which will include faculty from a diverse range of disciplines, will arise a social ecological model of chronic disease prevention and health promotion, Melnyk says.

Dr. Glenn Gaesser, an internationally renowned researcher who investigates the roles of exercise and diet in cardiometabolic health, has been appointed as the director of the new center.

About ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation

The ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation is one of the most innovative colleges of nursing in the United States. It was ranked in the top eight percent of graduate nursing programs in the nation in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report College Rankings.

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