Schneider appointed Endowed Chair in Gerontological Nursing Excellence
Following a national search, The University of Texas at Arlington has selected Barbara St. Pierre Schneider as the Endowed Chair in Gerontological Nursing Excellence, a position supported by the generosity of the Deerbrook Charitable Trust.
Schneider, who joined UTA on Jan. 1, will also serve as a professor in the Department of Graduate Nursing in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation (CONHI).
The newly established chair is part of a grant from the Deerbrook Charitable Trust to support excellence in gerontological nursing. Schneider, who comes to UTA with a national reputation as a nurse educator and researcher, will be the first to hold the chair.
Schneider is an accomplished senior nursing faculty member with extensive experience in nursing, clinical practice and research. She holds a BSN, MS and PhD in nursing and has completed two postdoctoral fellowships—one at UCLA and the other at Pennsylvania State University. She has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense and other agencies for various research efforts.
Schneider advocates for nurses taking a “bedside to bench” approach; she recognizes that while caring for oncology patients clinically, it is important for nurses to understand physiology and physiological research to inform the treatment and care they provide. She has focused her work on skeletal muscle inflammation, injury and recovery.
“As we work to expand our efforts in gerontological nursing, Dr. Schneider will help us—thanks to her many years of clinical and research experience,” said Elizabeth Merwin, CONHI dean. “Dr. Schneider is an exceptional nurse educator and researcher, and we are incredibly fortunate to have her join our college. She will be instrumental in helping educate our outstanding students to best care for the aging population.”
Schneider will contribute to the academic content of CONHI’s gerontological and other graduate nursing courses, including adult gerontology nurse practitioner programs. She brings prior experience in clinical nursing in oncology, as well as experience teaching in the areas of advanced medical-surgical nursing and the physiological basis of nursing.
Merwin said Schneider’s expertise—along with her demonstrated, consistent and collaborative approach to teaching and research—will help advance the college’s academic programs and its clinical and basic science research programs.