Thad Wilson, a family nurse practitioner who has served as a faculty member at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) since 1995, has been named executive associate dean in the University of Iowa College of Nursing.

Wilson, who has a doctorate and is a registered nurse, initially taught in and coordinated UMKC’s Family Nurse Practitioner program. In 2002, he was selected as the senior associate dean for the School of Nursing and Health Studies. During the past 10 years, the number of academic programs almost doubled, enrollment tripled, funding grew to almost $3 million, and a diversity program led to significant increases in graduates under-represented in nursing.

Wilson is a past president of the American College of Nurse Practitioners and previously served as a national board member. In 2010, he became a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. He has been funded by the Centers for Disease Control, the American Nurses Foundation, and other organizations to conduct research on immunizations and school-based immunization programs.

Early in his career, Wilson was clinic director at the La Buena Fe Clinic in Honduras, and he has repeatedly returned to serve the people of Honduras. He has been able to use his role as a bilingual male nurse practitioner in Puerto Rico to advocate for expanding R.N. practice in public health to include male health.