Rozmus to retire from career of academic leadership

The “what I want to be when I grow up” paper that Cathy L. Rozmus wrote in middle school stated specific goals – to become a nurse, earn a graduate degree, and teach nursing.

Rozmus, PhD, RN, FNAP, FAAN, surpassed her teenage dream. She will retire Aug. 31, 2026, as vice dean of academic affairs and PARTNERS Professor at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston. She also finishes her career as assistant vice president for institutional assessment and enhancement in the UTHealth Houston Office of Academic and Research Affairs and a faculty associate in the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.

She met her future husband, Glenn Rozmus, in her freshman calculus class at West Virginia University in Morgantown. The couple married between their junior and senior years. Rozmus earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and moved to Louisville, Ky., where she went to work on the neonatal intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital.

After her oldest child, Heather, was born, Rozmus started her own business teaching childbirth classes in Kentucky and later Columbia, Tenn., where the family lived when daughter Allison and son Aaron were born. Rozmus later worked weekends at Maury County Hospital in Columbia while Glenn worked weekdays.

It didn’t take long for Rozmus to pursue her dream of a graduate degree at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. There, she got a taste of research while working as a graduate research assistant and conducting her thesis research. “I probably was the only student who did their thesis before they started the clinical courses,” said Rozmus. She focused her master’s work on parent-child nursing and wrote her thesis on how mothers make the decision to breastfeed or bottle feed their infants.

After earning her Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), she went straight to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which at that time, offered the only doctoral program in nursing in the southeastern U.S.

She taught at Columbia State Community College while in graduate school, and after earning her PhD joined the faculty of Belmont University School of Nursing in Nashville just as the school was transitioning from an associate’s degree and RN to BSN framework to a four-year BSN program. She earned tenure as an associate professor within three years, became chair of graduate nursing, and eventually served as co-dean.

After seven years at Belmont, Rozmus moved to Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, Ga., as nursing school dean. Two years later, she became the vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty for the entire university, overseeing all six schools, the registrar’s office, Asian Studies Center, library, information technology, and all student support services.

By 2007, the couple decided it was time to take their next step. When her husband got a job near Houston, Rozmus called Patricia L. Starck, PhD, RN, FAAN, who led Cizik School of Nursing as dean for 31 years. Starck grew up in Americus and was among the first nursing graduates of Georgia Southwestern. Her family ties ran deep in the community and at the university.

Dean Starck needed pediatric faculty, and Rozmus made it to Houston in time for the Fall 2007 semester. She was tapped to be a department chair within a year and named associate dean for academic affairs in 2009. She has served in that role ever since, although the position was elevated to vice dean in 2016.

For 17 years, Rozmus has been in charge of the Office of Student Affairs, the Academic Success Center, the Simulation and Clinical Performance Laboratory, and the Center for Educational and Instructional Resources, which supports the technological needs of faculty and students. She has led successful accreditation efforts for the school, and for the university in her assistant vice president role.

She counts creating the Academic Success Center and the 2019 expansion of the sim lab among her proudest accomplishments. The Academic Success Center grew from one employee – director Linda Brown, PhD – to provide counseling, tutoring, and a writing coach for all students. The expanded and modernized sim lab opened in January 2020 and made it possible for students to complete requirements for hands-on clinical training during the pandemic.

Most recently, Rozmus got the Pre-Nursing Pathway off the ground, which admitted its first students in Fall 2025.

“We were concerned about whether our first-semester students were getting the preparation they need to be successful,” said Rozmus, who identified faculty expertise across UTHealth Houston to teach undergraduate prerequisite classes like biology, statistics, and human growth and development. Rozmus herself taught the ethics class.

Looking back at her many accomplishments, Rozmus is most proud of her students.

“It’s amazing when you are wandering around the medical center, and you’re talking to someone and they say, ‘I was your student at Belmont,’ and they’re now in a high position in one of the hospitals surrounding us,” she said.

At Cizik School of Nursing, Rozmus has taught pediatrics, research, and ethics. She chaired dissertation committees for 17 PhD students and helped them get published. “Many of them are faculty now,” she said. “It was fun to have your student become your faculty peer.”

Rozmus’ many awards and recognitions have included induction as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the National Academies of Practice, and the Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., Academy of Health Science Education. She also received The University of Texas System Regent’s Outstanding Teaching Award. But perhaps the most meaningful honor came from Bluefield High School in her West Virginia hometown.

“I received the award to be in my high school hall of fame. The year before, it was a Nobel Prize winner,” said Rozmus. “My parents were there for the award. It meant a lot to them and to me.”

Rozmus plans to do a lot of traveling in retirement, with trips to California and Florida already planned for the month of September. She will also continue her hobby of ballroom dancing, which she practices six days a week. In May, she checked off a bucket-list item by traveling to England and competing in the Blackpool Dance Festival on its 100^th anniversary. She and her partner tied for third place in their category.

For future faculty and administrators, she has two pieces of advice.

“The first is persistence. Persistence is important whether you go the research route, the administrative route, or the purely instructional route,” Rozmus said.

“The second is take advantage of any opportunity,” she added. “Even though I knew way back in middle school that I wanted to teach in nursing, it never occurred to me that I could be the vice president for academic affairs of a university. I never thought about being a dean. So, take advantage of the opportunities when they come.”