Nursing Professor Betty Rambur, the Routhier Endowed Chair for Practice, has been named interim dean of the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing. Betty will assume this new role on Jan. 1 as Barbara Wolfe, current dean of the college, begins her tenure as URI’s next provost and executive vice president.
Throughout her distinguished career, Rambur has helped to advance nursing education and the nursing profession. Her distinguished record of research, commitment to teaching, and previous experience as a nursing college dean make her the ideal choice to lead the college during this period of transition as the University begins a national search for a permanent dean.
A leading expert on health policy, health outcomes, and the cost of health care in the U.S., Rambur was appointed in 2020 to the U.S. Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
Her work includes re-conceptualized models of care, including primary care nursing and e-/virtual care. Her book, Health Care Finance, Economics, and Policy for Nurses, now in its second edition, supports nurses’ effectiveness and contributions to organizations in rapid transition in response to evolving financial and reimbursement incentives.
Rambur has been honored by the nursing honor society, Sigma Theta Tau International, and has been awarded the prestigious Sloan Consortium Excellence in Online Teaching and Learning Award and the American Academy for Nurse Practitioners State Award for Nurse Practitioner Advocacy. She is a trustee of South County Health, a member of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Health Policy Advisory Committee, and a member of Rhode Island’s Cost Trends Steering Committee and Long Term Health Plan Committee. She also serves on the editorial advisory board of the peer-reviewed journal Policy, Politics, and Nursing Practice.
Her work at URI began in 2015 when she served as a visiting scholar and a panelist at the first Routhier Lecture Series, which addressed the problems facing American health care and the demands of the Affordable Care Act. In 2016, she was named the Routhier Chair of Practice in URI’s College of Nursing.
Prior to URI, Rambur was the founding dean of the University of Vermont’s College of Nursing and Health Science. She also served as UVM’s dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences and dean of the School of Nursing. She served as the only nurse on Vermont’s Green Mountain Care Board, which regulates health care in Vermont and provides oversight of the transition from fee-for-service to value-based care.
A fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, Betty earned both a Ph.D. and master’s degree from Rush University in Chicago. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, and a post-baccalaureate certificate as a family nurse practitioner from the University of North Dakota College of Medicine.