Vice provost for health helps position GVSU's future

By naming a permanent vice provost for health, Grand Valley State University administrators have strengthened the institution's already strong reputation for collaborating with the community in health care education and research.

Grand Valley Provost Gayle R. Davis named Jean Nagelkerk vice provost for health. Nagelkerk had served in an interim role since April.
 
“Professor Nagelkerk is quite effective as an advocate and representative in our many health sciences arenas. We expect she will help to position the university for great initiatives to come, in service to our state and region,” said Davis.

Her duties include serving as Grand Valley’s liaison to area hospitals, community agencies, and the Van Andel Institute; establishing partnerships and educational opportunities with Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine; and developing a strategic vision for GVSU in the larger health care community.

Several new partnerships and programs are underway. Nagelkerk said GVSU and MSU are exploring interdisciplinary opportunities that would team students in health professions, nursing and medicine together.

“For example, it may be a simulation case on responding to heart arrests,” Nagelkerk said. “During that type of emergency in a hospital, everyone involved in patient care in the room would be working together.”

Kirkhof College of Nursing has an enrollment of 1,568 undergraduate and graduate students; The College of Health Professions enrolls 1,300 undergraduate and graduate students in eight programs: clinical laboratory science, health professions, occupational safety and health management, radiologic/imaging sciences, therapeutic recreation, occupational therapy, physician assistant studies and physical therapy.

Nagelkerk said expanding clinical placements for all of those students has sent her outside greater Grand Rapids. She has met with leaders at hospitals and clinics along the lakeshore, in Cadillac and Ludington, among other cities.

“We’re expanding our clinical sites and exploring different learning models based on interdisciplinary teams,” she said.

Nagelkerk, who joined Grand Valley in 1993, has served on the GRMERC operational board for the past year, continuing her engagement with the local and national health care community. She is also a professor of nursing.