Closing a Chapter

“I have been extraordinarily fortunate to have experienced such a full career at the University of New Mexico,” Levi said. “I’m really grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of this amazing Health Sciences Center and to participate in the education of nurses and midwives in the state of New Mexico. I’ve worked with a lot of really talented, thoughtful talented and committed individuals. I see an amazing future for the Health Sciences.”

Levi is the Leah L. Albers Endowed Professor of Midwifery in the UNM College of Nursing. She oversees the offices of Faculty Contracts, Professionalism, Interprofessional Education, Registrar/Student Services, and the Interprofessional Health Simulation Center, as well as providing academic support to the Health Sciences Rio Rancho campus. Her team also supports the UNM Health Sciences Faculty and Student Councils.

Christine E. Kasper, PhD, dean of the College of Nursing, hailed Levi’s achievements.

“It has been an honor to have Dr. Levi as a member of the senior faculty of the College of Nursing,” Kasper said. “As the Leah L. Albers Professor her scholarship has also improved midwifery in New Mexico.

Prior to her appointment as vice president for academic affairs in 2017, Levi had occupied a variety of roles since joining UNM’s College of Nursing faculty in July 2012, serving as interim chair of the practice team and interim associate executive dean before assuming the role of director of Health Sciences Interprofessional Education in July 2016.

Earlier in her career, Levi held a variety of clinical and administrative positions in nurse-midwifery practices in Philadelphia, Burlington, Vt., and at the University of California, San Francisco. She also served as a lecturer, clinical instructor and adjunct professor in nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Vermont, the University of Rhode Island and UCSF. She served as a clinical professor at the UCSF School of Medicine from 2005 to 2012.

Levi has a bachelor’s degree in nutrition from Hampshire College, an associate’s degree in nursing from the State University of New York, a bachelor of science in nursing from Widener University and a nurse practitioner certificate, master of science in nursing and PhD in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania.

Her research and professional interests encompass the role of nurses and midwives in abortion care.

Her publications have outlined the evidence for health care providers to become competent in preventing unintended pregnancy applying a public health prevention model and the development of competence in the provision of abortion care by nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives.

Levi is a Fellow in the American College of Nurse-Midwives and the American Academy of Nursing, and founding chair of the Midwives for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Abortion Caucus of the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Levi’s office currently oversees both faculty and student matters. Going forward, Ziedonis said he will divide these responsibilities with the appointment of two new interim directors.

In consultation with the deans, faculty and student groups and assistance from two search committees, he plans to appoint an interim director to focus on faculty contracts and academic affairs, as well as policies related faculty advancement, promotion and disciplinary matters, and an interim director overseeing the Health Sciences registrar and student affairs office and the Interprofessional Education program.