Top 100 Leaders

Virginia Trotter Betts

MSN 1971 - Distinguished Alumna and Faculty

Recognized as a national and international health and mental health policy leader. She currently serves as Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities and previously as the Senior Advisor on Nursing and Policy to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her leadership within the nursing profession includes the presidency of the American and Tennessee Nurses Associations along with an academic career at the University of Tennessee Health Science College and Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies.