AUSTIN, Texas—Dr. Sharon A. Brown, the James R. Dougherty, Jr. Centennial Professor in Nursing and associate dean for research in The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing, has been appointed associate vice president for research. The announcement was made by Dr. Juan M. Sanchez, vice president for research.
“As associate dean at the School of Nursing, Dr. Brown has an outstanding record in research management and development,” said Sanchez. “She has proven herself to be a superb advocate for research with a clear and uncompromising focus on excellence. I am particularly impressed by her effectiveness in working with faculty to develop the necessary consensus and collaboration that culminated in an unprecedented infusion of more than $8 million in research funding to the School of Nursing from the National Institutes of Health. I am personally grateful to Dr. Brown for agreeing to serve as associate vice president and to Dean Dolores Sands for gracefully accepting, although somewhat reluctantly, Dr. Brown’s departure from the School of Nursing.”
As associate vice president for research, Brown will pro-actively pursue the development of research programs with a broad range of external sponsors, including the development of multidisciplinary research initiatives. She also will work closely with the Office of Sponsored Projects, coordinate activities with administrative units at the University and oversee selected committees reporting to the vice president for research. BrownÌs appointment will fill a vacancy created in April when Sanchez was appointed to the position of vice president for research.
Brown received her Ph.D. at UT Austin in 1987 while serving as assistant professor of nursing at The UT Health Science Center at Houston. In addition, Brown served as director of the Center for Nursing Research and associate dean for research and evaluation while rapidly progressing to the rank of professor. In 1995, Brown returned to UT Austin to accept the James R. Dougherty, Jr. Centennial Professorship and associate dean for research position in the School of Nursing.
Her research specializations are in health promotion interventions for people with Type 2 diabetes, particularly minority populations, and in meta-analysis research methodology. In her research, Brown leads an interdisciplinary team of nurses, geneticists, physicians, biometrists, dietitians and community workers in a clinical trial of diabetes interventions for Mexican Americans. This work is funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH, 1994-2004. The work is being conducted in an impoverished Texas-Mexico border community of 40,000, where about 50 percent of the adult residents are affected by diabetes.
Brown teaches courses in advanced research methods at the doctoral level and has supervised 14 Ph.D. and masterÌs degree students. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. In 1997, she was invited to The Mayo Clinic School of Medicine as a Visiting Professor.
