Time of Transition

Carolyn Montoya, PhD, to Serve as Interim Dean in UNM College of Nursing

Carolyn Montoya, PhD, RN, PNP-PC, FAANP, FAAN, , has agreed to serve as interim dean of The University of New Mexico College of Nursing.

Montoya, who currently serves as the interim executive vice dean in the College, will transition immediately to the role of interim dean and work closely with Dean Christine E. Kasper prior to Kasper’s transition at the end of December to the University of Pittsburgh.

Montoya will serve in this position until the national search is completed for a permanent replacement.

“Dr. Montoya previously served in many leadership roles for the College of Nursing, including as interim dean prior to Dean Kasper’s appointment in 2018,” said Douglas Ziedonis, MD, MPH, executive vice president for Health Sciences and CEO of the UNM Health System. “She is superbly qualified for this role and is extremely well aware of all the current matters for the College.

“Dr. Montoya has also served the education and scholarship missions with excellence and has developed expertise in health care policy, pediatrics, rural health and underserved populations. She is an outstanding mentor and teacher.”

Montoya, a native of Belen, N.M., earned her bachelor of science in nursing degree at UNM in 1976. She went on to complete her master’s degree as a pediatric nurse practitioner at Yale University before returning to New Mexico in 1983. She earned her PhD at UNM in 2013 with the help of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation policy grant.
Through the years she assumed varied leadership responsibilities in the College, helping to grow the advanced practice registered nurse program. She served as chair of the Practice team and coordinator of the Family and Pediatric Nurse Practitioner concentrations.

In 1993, as president of the New Mexico Nurse Practitioner Council, she and her colleagues led the effort for nurse practitioners to have full prescriptive authority and independent practice in New Mexico.

Montoya also served as president of the American College of Nurse Practitioners, as well as president of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners and of the New Mexico Nurse Practitioner Council. While leading these organizations, she advocated for renewal of the Children’s Health Insurance Program and for allowing pediatric nurse practitioners to be accepted into the National Health Service Corps.

She has influenced health care for New Mexicans through her participation on the New Mexico Medicaid Advisory Board and as a member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Rural Health. 

“Dr. Montoya is superbly qualified for this role and is extremely well aware of all the current matters for the College.”

— Douglas Ziedonis, MD, MPH