Baltimore native and chair of UMSON's Department of Partnerships, Professional Education, and Practice will begin in new role July 17.

The following email was sent to the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) community by UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, on June 9:

It is my pleasure to share great news with you! Yolanda Ogbolu, PhD ’11, MS ’05, CRNP-Neonatal, FNAP, FAAN, will be the next Bill and Joanne Conway Dean of the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON). She is an experienced educator, clinician, researcher, and public servant. Dr. Ogbolu is currently chair of the Department of Partnerships, Professional Education, and Practice; co-director of the Center for Health Equity and Outcomes Research; co-director of the Global Learning to Advance Health Equity Network; associate professor at UMSON; and assistant professor in the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Master of Public Health Program. She previously served as the director of the Office of Global Health at UMSON.

Dr. Ogbolu is a proud Baltimore native who received her BSN, MS, and PhD here at UMB. Prior to coming to academia 13 years ago, she was a board-certified neonatal nurse practitioner with over 22 years’ experience. Her research and scholarship focus has been on health equity, improving the social determinants of health, dissemination and implementation of health equity research and policy into clinical practice, and improving the lives of vulnerable newborns and their families. Raised just two blocks from UMB, Dr. Ogbolu describes her commitment to UMB and Baltimore as “unwavering, partly because this is the neighborhood where I grew up and in which I now have the privilege to work.”

She is currently the chair of the Social Determinants of Health Taskforce of Baltimore City and served on two state task forces examining infant mortality and cultural competency. Dr. Ogbolu has authored and co-authored a number of articles that have appeared in the Annals of Global Health; Journal of Addictions Nursing; Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing: JOGNN; Neonatal Network; Bulletin of the World Health Organization; and The Journal of Nursing Research and Practice, among others, and was an expert reviewer for the World Health Organization for implementation science.

Recognized as a national leader in nursing, she has been invited to participate in national-level committees with the American Nurses Association (ANA), the National League for Nursing, and the National Quality Forum’s Disparities Standing Committee, where she served as the only nurse. She also serves on the ANA’s Subcommittee on Racism in Nursing Research.

Dr. Ogbolu has received numerous honors and awards, including as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, a fellow of the National Academies of Practice, and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar. She also has received the Harriet Tubman Legacy in Maternal Child Health Nursing Award from the Minority Nurses Association of Maryland and a Governor’s Citation Award from former Gov. Martin O’Malley. She was the 2022 UMB Founders Week Public Servant of the Year, recognized as a 2015 UMB Champion of Excellence, won the 2014 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Outstanding Faculty Diversity Award, and was one of three faculty speakers at UMB’s inaugural faculty Convocation in 2022. 

I want to thank those who participated in our comprehensive national search, especially the search committee chaired by Mark Reynolds, DDS, PhD, MA, dean of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, and vice-chaired by Lisa Rowen, DNSc, MS ’86, RN, CENP, FAAN, system chief nurse executive for the University of Maryland Medical System and professor and alumna of UMSON, along with everyone else who met with the candidates and provided meaningful input and feedback about the candidates and the search process.

I know that you will join me in congratulating Dr. Ogbolu on her new position, which will begin July 17, 2023.