Assistant Professor Dawn Vanderhoef, PhD, DNP, PMHNP/CNS-BC, has been named director of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (VUSN).
The program is one of the School’s largest specialties and is ranked as the No. 4 Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program in the country, according to the most recent U.S. News and World Report’s Best Graduate Schools edition.
“Dawn is recognized as a clinical expert on integrated health care models and an innovator in bringing technology into the academic nursing curricula. She is a knowledgeable national presenter and admired by students and colleagues alike. She is the ideal leader for this program,” said Linda Norman, DSN, RN, FAAN, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Dean and Valere Potter Menefee Professor of Nursing.
Vanderhoef has more than 20 years of psychiatric nursing experience. She was a faculty member at VUSN from 2003 to 2010. In 2013, she returned to VUSN from the University of Minnesota School of Nursing where she served as the co-principal investigator on a HRSA grant on “Enhancing Interprofessional Integrative Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Education to Address Health Care of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders and Other Chronic Conditions (2013).” She also actively practices at Centerstone Community Health Center and has published extensively in the areas of educational innovation.
She recently received the Award for Excellence in Education from the American Nurses Psychiatric Association (APNA), a recognition given to someone who has imparted knowledge, skill and clinical analysis in the field by demonstrating innovative approaches, collaboration with other disciplines and positive mentoring.
Vanderhoef earned her BSN from University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, a MSN from the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program at VUSN, a DNP and PhD from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and a Post-Master’s Certificate as a Family Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner from VUSN.