Susie Adams, PhD, RN, has been named to the newly created position of Nursing Faculty Scholar for Community Engaged Behavioral Health at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. The Faculty Scholar position will partner with existing and/or new agencies affiliated with VUSN to evaluate evidence-based health practices, analyze program outcomes and disseminate findings.
“Susie is the ideal person to lead scholarly contributions in this new way. She is viewed as a consummate collaborator and partner within the local, regional and national behavioral health community, and she is respected for her own work, particularly in the health and well-being of women with substance abuse and co-occurring mental health disorders,” said Linda Norman, DSN, RN, Valere Potter Menefee Professor of Nursing, and Dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.
Adams has served as program director for the school’s Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) program for almost two decades, growing the program in meaningful ways and making it one of the most popular specialty tracks at the school. Her research has made a profound impact in organizations such as The Next Door, an agency that serves women with substance abuse problems re-entering the community from incarceration. Since 1997, she has served on the board of the Mental Health Cooperative, a multi-site network which provides a continuum of services for those with serious mental illness.
She is also president-elect of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association.