Well-appointed

February 16, 2024

Meet four School of Nursing faculty recently appointed to endowed professorships.

In 2023, the school added three new professorships, bringing the total endowed faculty positions to nine. Funding for these positions provides additional ongoing support for faculty to pursue excellence in professional, research and leadership activities.

joseph deranieri
Joseph DeRanieri, D.M., M.S.N., RN, BCECR
Gail W. Johnson Professorship for Innovation Leadership

DeRanieri serves as the director and affiliate scholar of the Langston Center for Innovation in Quality and Safety and a clinical associate professor in the Adult Health and Nursing Systems Department. He is considered an industry expert in nursing, health care administration, cost-effectiveness analysis, health care finance, disaster management, and quality management and has served as a content expert for the White House Policy Challenge and as a Baldrige Performance Excellence Examiner.

michelle edmonds
Michelle Edmonds, D.N.P., RN
Dr. Betsy A. Bampton Professorship

Edmonds serves as associate dean for the undergraduate program and chair for the Department of Family and Community Health Nursing. An alumna of VCU Nursing, she previously worked as an emergency department nurse, emergency department director, and served as inaugural dean of nursing, health and natural sciences for Southside Virginia Community College.

amy salisbury
Amy Salisbury, Ph.D., RN, FAAN
Ann Steigleder Endowed Chair for Research

Salisbury is the associate dean for research, scholarship and innovation for the school and conducts extensive research on bio-behavioral development from before birth through early childhood. Under her leadership, the school’s research portfolio has expanded and garnered record grant funding placing it among the top nursing schools funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, an independent organization that reports and ranks NIH funding.

lana sargent
Lana Sargent, Ph.D., RN, FNP-C, GNP-BC
Nursing Alumni Endowed Professor

Sargent, an associate professor in the Department of Adult Health and Nursing Systems, currently serves as associate dean of practice and community engagement in the school. In that role, she leads the school’s growing faculty practice and provides strategic direction for community engagement initiatives including the Mobile Health and Wellness Program. She is an active researcher and also co-leads the Richmond Brain Health Initiative, a project that provides dementia-related screening, education, coaching and referrals for medically underserved, low-income Black communities.