Graduate Department celebrates retirees

Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston kicked off National Nurses Week by honoring five faculty members in the Department of Graduate Studies who plan to retire in the coming weeks.

“These exceptional educators represent a combined total of about 230 years of caring for patients and preparing students to succeed as advanced practice nurses and leaders,” said Susan D. Ruppert, PhD, RN, FNP-C, ANP-BC, FCCM, FNAP, FAANP, FAAN, associate dean for graduate studies. “We are exceedingly grateful for their commitment to nursing excellence and their many contributions to Cizik School of Nursing, and we wish them all happy and fulfilling retirements. Each will be greatly missed.”

Nancy M. Crider,
DrPH, MSN, RN, NEA-BC
Assistant Professor

Nancy Crider will retire at the end of the month after teaching students in the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Nursing Leadership and Administration track since its inception in 2013. Well-known for her health policy and business courses, Crider served as advisor and project chair for 47 DNP graduates who now hold leadership positions across Texas and the U.S.

She is board certified as a Nurse Executive Advanced and a fellow of the Texas Public Health Association. She earned a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from UTHealth Houston School of Public Health and previously worked as a research associate and program manager for UTHealth Houston’s Texas Public Health Training Center, which was funded by a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Before joining UTHealth Houston, Crider worked at several Magnet hospitals in the Northeast and Texas, including as vice president of nursing at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, administrative director of the Nellie B. Connally Breast Center at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and director of nursing education for Harris Health System in Houston.

Crider has focused on evidenced-based healthy homes principles, such as poor indoor air quality and home safety, and has long served as a consultant and trainer with the Cornell University Northeast IPM Center’s Stop Pests in Housing program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She also serves as a member of Houston Asthma Action Council and is an appointed member of the Texas Department of Agriculture Structural Pest Control Advisory Committee. Her clinical interests also include emergency preparedness, health literacy, and the prevention and management of chronic diseases.

She has held numerous leadership positions with professional organizations at the local, state, and national level. Her many awards have included the National Safe and Healthy Housing Coalition Award and the Texas Nurses Association District 9 Outstanding Nurse Leader Award.

She plans to continue as casual faculty after retiring from full-time teaching.

Angela Nash,
PhD, RN, CPNP-PC, PMHS, CARN-AP, FIAAN
Associate Professor

Angela Nash has devoted her career to caring for children, starting as a pediatric nurse, then becoming a pediatric nurse practitioner, an educator, and a researcher. For the past 15 years, she has focused on treating children and teens with substance use and mental health issues. She is board certified in pediatric primary care, mental/behavioral health, and addiction nursing in advanced practice.

An Austin native, Nash earned her BSN in 1980 and MSN in 1997 on the pediatric nurse practitioner track at The University of Texas at Austin. She worked in hospitals in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units and parent education as well as in pediatric primary care clinics in the state capital and in Colorado before moving to Houston in 2005. She served as the nurse practitioner team leader for a Texas Children’s Hospital mobile clinic and taught as an instructor at Baylor College of Medicine in the areas of health literacy and care for the medically underserved.

Nash was among the first cohort to complete the Patricia L. Starck Accelerated PhD program at Cizik School of Nursing as a George Foundation Scholar in 2013. Soon after graduation, she became an assistant professor at her alma mater, teaching in the areas of population/community health and research while continuing research on recovery from adolescent substance use disorders. She has spoken nationally and internationally and published 20 peer-reviewed papers, one book, and four book chapters on these topics. She was the principal investigator for four funded projects, co-authored two grants, and served as a consultant for the Recovery Research Institute’s adolescent recovery-focused grants.

Nash has consistently maintained a faculty practice, and from 2021 to 2026 she helped to develop and served as the adolescent clinical provider for the UTHealth Houston Honor’s Young HEROES (Houston Emergency Opioid Engagement System) project.

Her honors through the years include the 2019 Outstanding Researcher Award from the National Association of Alternative Peer Groups, induction as a fellow of the International Academy of Addictions Nursing, and the 2025 Outstanding Contributions to Addiction Nursing Award from the International Nurses Society on Addictions.

Her retirement is effective May 31.

Madelene Ottosen,
PhD, MSN, RN
Assistant Professor

Madelene Ottosen started her 33 years with UTHealth Houston as a nurse manager in the Center for Clinical Translational Sciences, a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded partnership with Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center. She became associate director of the university’s Clinical Trials Resource Center (CRTC) in 2008. She has contributed nursing and research methods expertise to numerous clinical studies and grants funded by the NIH and private sources. She also co-developed training programs for research nurses and coordinators within UTHealth Houston.

After earning her PhD from Cizik School of Nursing in 2015, Ottosen was promoted to assistant professor with the Memorial Hermann-UTHealth Houston Center for Healthcare Quality and Safety, an appointment she maintained after joining her alma mater as a faculty member in the Department of Research. Her work in patient safety contributed to numerous research projects, publications, and collaborations. She transitioned to the Department of Graduate Studies in 2021 and enjoyed teaching research and evidence-based practice methods within the MSN and DNP programs and mentoring graduate students on dissertations and DNP projects.

Ottosen served on the UTHealth Houston Institutional Review Board for over 20 years and was a founding member of the International Association of Clinical Research Nurses. She also facilitated the development of several advisory councils to integrate patients’ and families’ perspectives into nursing education, research, and quality improvement initiatives.

Ottosen earned her BSN from the University of St. Thomas in Houston and worked as a cardiovascular intensive care unit nurse and nurse manager. She received her MSN from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., as a cardiovascular nurse specialist.

Her retirement is effective at the end of the spring semester, May 17.

Susan Stafford,
DNP, MBA, MPA, RN-BC, NEA-BC
Assistant Professor

A nursing leadership and informatics expert, Susan Stafford joined the faculty shortly after earning her DNP from Cizik School of Nursing. She is board certified as an informatics nurse and advanced nurse executive, and she has been a clinical assistant professor since 2019.

Stafford began her career as a pediatric and school nurse after earning her MSN from Wichita State University in Kansas. She earned a Master of Public Administration from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo and taught as adjunct faculty at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

She moved to Houston in 1999 and spent the next decade in leadership positions at MD Anderson Cancer Center, including interim chief nursing officer, and at Memorial Hermann, where she served as director of clinical informatics for the flagship Texas Medical Center hospital and as chief nursing informatics officer for the health care system. While in Houston, she also earned her Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.

After serving in top leadership positions for Cleveland Clinic Healthcare System and Cerner Corporation in Kansas City, Mo., Stafford returned to MD Anderson, where her roles included director of nursing informatics and executive director of nursing professional practice.

She will transition to part-time status on May 15 and plans to retire Aug. 15.

Faith Strunk,
PhD, RN, FNP-BC
Assistant Professor

Faith Strunk spent 16 years in the Army Nurse Corps after earning her BSN from Arizona State University. During that time, she worked in several Army hospitals and clinics and earned her MSN to become a family nurse practitioner from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, as well as a Bachelor of Science in computer studies from the University of Maryland-European Division.

After her military service ended, Strunk eventually landed in the Houston area, where she worked for The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in its maternal-child health program and in a prison clinic.

Strunk later joined MD Anderson’s Department of Breast Medical Oncology and became the hospital’s sponsored scholar in Cizik School of Nursing’s accelerated doctoral program, graduating with her PhD the same year as Nash. Her doctoral research focused on symptoms in breast cancer survivors.

Since joining the faculty in 2013, she has presented at many local, national, and international conferences and practiced in a variety of settings, including Cizik School of Nursing’s UTHealth Services clinic.

Strunk will teach through the summer semester and retire Aug. 15.