SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Katherine Hutchinson will join the University of Rhode Island’s College of Nursing as associate dean of graduate programs and research this summer, the university announced.
Hutchinson, a registered nurse and fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, comes to URI from Boston College, where she has been a tenured nursing professor since 2012. She served as associate dean for graduate programs at BC until 2017.
She said the URI College of Nursing has a head start as an innovative, inclusive college focused on leading in the health care industry.
“There are some amazing things going on at URI. I’ve heard nothing but positive things about the college, the faculty, the students,” Hutchinson said. “The college has accomplished faculty who are really enthusiastic about moving nursing education and health care forward. People are really happy with what they are doing there. It’s really contagious, that kind of enthusiasm.”
Hutchinson has a clinical background in maternal-child and neonatal critical care nursing. Her research focuses on adolescent and young-adult risk behaviors, and influential parenting behaviors, URI noted in its announcement. She focuses on HIV, sexual risk and violence prevention with high-risk youths and young adults. Her HIV prevention work includes international research conducted in Jamaica. From 2007 to 2012, she led a randomized, controlled mother-daughter HIV-risk reduction intervention in Kingston, Jamaica, with collaborators from the University of the West Indies.
Since 2001, Hutchinson has been principal investigator or co-investigator on numerous National Institutes of Health-funded research projects. She is widely published in professional peer-reviewed journals and has served as a grant reviewer on NIH Scientific Review Groups, according to the announcement.
“[Katherine] Hutchinson is a fabulous addition to [the] college and the entire university,” College of Nursing Dean Barbara Wolfe said. “We are delighted to have her join the ranks of the URI College of Nursing as we continue to serve as a dynamic catalyst for improving health and transforming health care in our communities through innovation and excellence.”
Rob Borkowski is a PBN contributing writer.
