Date: April 6, 2023
TO: The Rory Meyers College of Nursing Community
FROM: NYU President Andrew Hamilton and Interim Provost Gigi Dopico

The Appointment of Angela Amar as Dean of the Rory Meyers College of Nursing
We are very pleased to share with you the excellent news that NYU has named Angela Amar, PhD, RN, FAAN—the Dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)—as Dean of the Rory Meyers College of Nursing, effective August 1, 2023.   

She comes to Meyers with an outstanding reputation as a researcher, a nursing educator, and an advocate for the profession. She particularly impressed us, and the Search Committee, with her distinguished record of leadership, not only at UNLV but also at Emory and Boston College, and especially her focus on advancing diversity and inclusion in the profession, her concentration on student success, and her attention to faculty development. We were struck, too, by how strategically she was able to transform her vision, ambitions, and goals for UNLV’s School of Nursing into reality, with improvements in research funding, publications, student success, and faculty hiring. And, very much in the NYU spirit, she also has a history of openness to partnering with others—other schools within a university, other organizations in her geographic area—to improve nursing education, enhance research, better serve patients, strengthen community health, and contribute to workforce development.

All of which make her an excellent fit for the deanship of the Rory Meyers College of Nursing, which has seen its stature in the field grow extraordinarily.

Angela Amar—whose scholarship on sexual and partner violence focuses on improving care and support for survivors of violence and trauma when they enter the health care system—has been dean and a tenured professor at the School of Nursing at UNLV since 2018. In 2012, she joined the faculty of Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, where she served as an assistant and then associate dean between 2013 and 2017. In 2006, she was appointed as an assistant professor at Boston College’s William F. Connell School of Nursing, where she became director of the Advanced Forensic Nursing Program in 2008 and received tenure in 2010. Prior academic appointments include Georgetown’s and LSU’s schools of nursing.

She is a widely published author. Her books, articles, and book chapters include A Practical Guide to Forensic Nursing (2015, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing; with Sekula); “Gender Violence Prevention in Middle School Male Athletics Programs” (2020, JAMA Pediatrics, with Laughon); “Bullying Prevention: a Summary of the Report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine” (2016, with others); “Administrators' perceptions of college campus protocols, response, and student prevention efforts for sexual assault” (2014, Violence and Victims; with others); and "Gender Differences in Attitudes and Beliefs Associated With Bystander Behavior and Sexual Assault” (2014, Journal of Forensic Nursing; with others). She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including receiving the 2022 Nursing Leader Award from the Asian American Group and Las Vegas India Chamber of Commerce; being selected for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing-Wharton Executive Leadership program; and receiving the 2017 Lillian Sholtis Brunner Award for Innovative Practice in Nursing, Alumni Award, from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a Distinguished Fellow with the International Association of Forensic Nurses, and a Fellow in the National League for Nursing’s Academy of Nursing Education.

Dean Amar received her BSN in 1987 and her MN in 1992 from the Louisiana State University Medical Center’s School of Nursing, and her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. She is licensed as an RN in several states, is a Board certified Advanced Forensic Nurse, and is certified as an Adult Psychiatric and Mental Health Advanced Practice Nurse.  

In marking the appointment of Angela Amar as the new dean of the College of Nursing, we want to offer two especially well deserved notes of thanks.

First, we want to thank all the members of the Search Committee, which was so ably led by Audrey Lyndon, the Vernice D. Ferguson Professor in Health Equity and Assistant Dean for Clinical Research at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing. The committee took on this important assignment on top of their already heavy professional obligations, yet did stellar work. To Audrey Lyndon, Debra Albert, Stacie Bloom, Ab Brody, Jamie Chiappetta, Brian Fasolka, Sherry Glied, Jasmine Mentore, Maile Mercer, Mikki Meadows-Oliver, Tina Sadarangani, and Ellen Schall—thank you.

And second, we could not let the opportunity pass to express our gratitude, respect, and appreciation for Eileen Sullivan-Marx. A superb dean, a valued colleague and admired University citizen, a true leader within the University and the field of nursing—NYU has been very fortunate to have her as dean.

We are confident that the school Eileen has done so much to advance will be in excellent hands with Angela Amar. So we ask you to join us in thanking the Search Committee, expressing our gratitude to Eileen Sullivan-Marx, and especially in offering our heartiest congratulations and welcome to Angela Amar.