A cancer geneticist who specializes in ovarian cancer will become the interim dean at the School of Nursing & Health Studies (NHS) July 1, when current Dean Bette Jacobs concludes her service after 11 years at the school.
Julie DeLoia, associate dean of academic affairs and an associate professor in the Department of Human Science, has been widely published in scholarly publications such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology and the International Journal of Cancer. The future interim dean also has been principal investigator of two R01 National Institutes of Health grants.
“I am deeply grateful to Julie for her willingness to accept this important role as we work to identify and recruit a permanent dean for the school,” said Dr. Howard J. Federoff, executive vice president for health sciences at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC).
DeLoia said she will be honored to serve as interim dean.
“Our students are wonderful, and our faculty members care deeply about fostering an innovative learning environment through teaching, research and scholarship,” she said.
On July 1, the current dean will become a professor of nursing and health studies and a distinguished scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.
Federoff called Jacobs' tenure of more than a decade “a period of outstanding growth and development for NHS.”
A Scholar of Genetics
The future interim dean came to Georgetown in August 2007 from the University of Pittsburgh’s medical school, where she helped found the Ovarian Cancer Center and served as the center’s director of research.
DeLoia has since collaborated with NHS faculty on grant, course and academic program development and taught courses on genetics. She also has participated in the GUMC’s Strategic Planning Initiative and led continuing education courses for NHS faculty.
Her Ph.D. in human genetics is from Johns Hopkins University and she completed a post-doctoral fellowship in development genetics at the University of Pennsylvania.
“NHS Dean Bette Jacobs has helped build a strong foundation on which to grow in the future,” DeLoia said. “During the coming year, I will work closely with our community to identify ways to enhance and sustain our academic enterprise.”