Leading the way forward

The quest for excellence never stops at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston. Each achievement is a steppingstone to greater advances in nursing education, practice, and discovery. 

This continuous pursuit of innovation earned us a Center of Excellence™ designation from the National League of Nurses in 2025, recognizing our commitment to supporting nursing faculty with enriching professional development. In addition, our Doctor of Nursing Practice program was ranked No. 1 in Texas by U.S. News & World report. 

I am particularly excited about the strides we made this year in making undergraduate nursing education more affordable and accessible. In June, we launched the Future Nurses Fund, which will supplement other scholarships and grants to provide full coverage of in-state tuition and required fees for qualifying Texas residents earning less than $100,000 annually in gross adjusted income. We are also helping prepare students for nursing school with our summer camps and new Pre-Nursing Pathway. Not only will these initiatives help address the nursing shortage, they support social mobility by putting a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in reach for more students. 

On the research front, Cizik School of Nursing maintained its top ranking in Texas among nursing schools that receive funding from the National Institutes of Health and moved up to No. 15 nationally. Our funded research has continued to grow this year, including multimillion dollar federal grants to Associate Professor Jennifer E.S. Beauchamp, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Professor Jennifer Kawi, PhD, MSN, FNP-BC, CNE, FAAN. The Cizik Nursing Research Institute also hosted its first event this year, bringing together pain research experts for a daylong retreat. 

Of course, our progress would not be possible without our generous supporters. In this issue of Cizik Nursing, retired development officer Mary Martha Stinnett recalls the founding of our PARTNERS organization, which has raised more than $16 million for student scholarships and faculty research. We are grateful to all of our PARTNERS, including former chair Dorothy Nicholson, who recently made a generous endowment to sustain and grow our tutoring program. For a limited time, UTHealth Houston will provide a three-to-one institutional match to new, qualified pledges of $100,000 to $1,000,000 made to enhance existing nursing scholarship endowments or establish new ones. 

Cizik School of Nursing truly is a passport to nursing excellence and opportunity for students and researchers alike. I am fortunate to share this journey with an amazing team of faculty and staff as we look toward ever-expanding horizons.

Onward and upward!

Diane Santa Maria, DrPH, MSN, RN, PHNA-BC, ACRN, FSAHM, FAAN
Dean
Jane and Robert Cizik Distinguished Chair
Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair in Nursing Education Leadership