Courtesy of Yale President's Office

Azita Emami is set to take over as the dean of the School of Nursing, University President Peter Salovey confirmed in a Monday email sent to Yale faculty, staff, students and trustees.

Emami — who currently serves as executive dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Washington — will begin her appointment on Aug. 1. As the Yale School of Nursing responds to recent criticism from students claiming professors neglected the role of race in health education, Emami says she will prioritize promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in the school’s culture and in its academic curriculum.

“Nursing is a profession where our responsibility is to care about and for people no matter where they come from, what needs they have,” Emami said. “That’s why issues that are related to diversity, equity and inclusion are extremely important for nurses to be able to do their job well.”

At the University of Washington, Emami led the creation of the nation’s first center for antiracism in nursing, redesigned the School of Nursing’s curriculum to emphasize health equity and led the U.S. Nursing Now initiative, a global health equity campaign in partnership with the International Council of Nurses and the World Health Organization. 

In his Monday email, Salovey praised Emami for her leadership, which he said has led the UW School of Nursing to have “consistently received recognition as one of the top public university schools of nursing in the country.” The University of Washington has the fourth best nursing master’s program in the nation, while the Yale School of Nursing is ranked 20th, according to the U.S. News & World Report.

“An internationally recognized nursing leader and investigator, she brings to Yale a dedication to fostering wellness and more than two decades of experience shaping research and teaching, advancing the role of nurses in clinical practice and improving health care equity and access,” Salovey wrote.

Emami said that the pandemic starkened health inequalities across the country and emphasized the role of nursing education in correcting for these disparities, particularly along racial lines. She added that she would emphasize social determinants of health, including systemic racism, in the courses offered at the School of Nursing — something she had previously achieved at UW.

Emami’s emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion comes in the wake of a string of racial controversies which took place under the last non-interim dean of the school, Ann Kurth. In 2020, The News spoke with students at the school who alleged that professors and guest lectures made insensitive remarks, describing a lack of diversity among students and staff. 

Kurth — who stepped down from the role of dean to serve as the president of the New York Academy of Medicine last fall — was not mentioned in the email announcement. However, Salovey congratulated Interim Dean Holly Powell Kennedy for her “exceptional leadership of the school.”

“As dean, I apologize for all the times when Yale School of Nursing did not effectively address racism that happened right here in our own environment,” Kurth said in a 2020 statement. “Many Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) members of our community were hurt and let down as a result.”

That year, the school’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion Raven Rodriguez resigned, citing an “oppressive status quo” at the School of Nursing. Students also complained that the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the school was ineffective at combating racism there.

Emami told the News that she would take such claims over racism very seriously, and would prioritize a more inclusive culture at the school.

“I think that we really need to welcome and promote and encourage students to always question oppression, always question racism, and these are devastating,” she said. “And it’s time for us to interrogate that.”

Emami received her R.N. and doctorate degrees in the medical sciences at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.