The Wayne State University College of Nursing will welcome President and CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Deborah Trautman, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Chief Academic Officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges Alison Whelan, MD, FACP, to campus on Monday, Oct. 2, as part of its Dr. Virginia Hill Rice Endowed Distinguished Lectureship.

The two nationally recognized experts on health policy and education lead the Interprofessional Education Collaborative and will deliver a presentation on the future of interprofessional education in the health professions starting at 4:30 p.m. in the Wayne State Law School’s Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium. The free event is open to the public and includes a Q&A session and reception.

Established in 2018 by College of Nursing emerita professor Virginia Rice, PhD, RN, CNS, FAAN, the annual lectureship brings renowned speakers to campus to share a futurist perspective on nursing and health care through insightful presentations and engaging discussion with faculty, students, residents and community partners.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Trautman and Dr. Whelan to campus to share their distinct knowledge and expertise,” said College of Nursing Dean Laurie Lauzon Clabo, PhD, RN, FAAN. “Their combined leadership and experience in health policy, education and innovation is unmatched — especially in interprofessional education. This lecture is a fitting recognition of Dr. Rice and a uniquely special opportunity for our campus community.”

How to register

Seats for this free, public event are limited and will fill fast. RSVP as soon as possible to reserve your seat.

About the lecturers

Dr. Deborah Trautman is president and chief executive officer of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). As the national voice for baccalaureate and graduate nursing education, AACN serves the public interest by setting standards, providing resources and developing the leadership capacity of member schools to advance nursing education, research and practice.

Prior to joining AACN, Dr. Trautman served as the executive director of the Center for Health Policy and Healthcare Transformation at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She has also served in other leadership positions at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Dr. Trautman is a member of several professional societies and serves on a number of high-profile boards and advisory groups, including the Research!America Board of Directors and the Joint Commission’s Chief Nurse Executive Council (CNEC). She has contributed as a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Well-being and Resilience, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Special Medical Advisory Group — which advises the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on matters related to health care delivery, research, education and related areas — and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as program director of the New Careers in Nursing project.

Dr. Trautman is a 2007/2008 Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow who worked for the Hon. Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. She is also a Distinguished Nursing Fellow in the National Academies of Practice.

Dr. Trautman received a BSN from West Virginia Wesleyan College, an MSN from the University of Pittsburgh and a PhD in health policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Dr. Alison J. Whelan became the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) chief academic officer in 2021. In this role, she oversees efforts that prepare and assist deans, faculty leaders, educators and future physicians for the challenges of 21st century academic medicine. She leads a staff that addresses critical medical school data, administrative, and operational issues; explores new models of successful mission alignment; focuses on key student and faculty issues; transforms current models of education and workforce preparation across the full continuum of medical education; and supports medical school accreditation activities.

Dr. Whelan joined the AAMC as chief medical education officer in 2016. Prior to joining the association, she served as professor of medicine and pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where she held multiple education roles as course director, clerkship director, curriculum dean and was appointed the inaugural senior associate dean for education, overseeing the continuum of medical education from medical school admissions through CME.

Dr. Whelan continued both clinical care and research involvement until she left Washington University. She created and ran the hereditary cancer clinic, co-ran an interdisciplinary Marfan clinic, was co-director of the Siteman Cancer Center Hereditary Cancer Research Core, and served five years on the Siteman Cancer Center Executive Committee.

An internist and clinical geneticist, Dr. Whelan received her bachelor’s from Carleton College in 1981. She earned her medical degree from Washington University in 1986 and completed her postgraduate work and residency at the former Barnes Hospital, now Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

About Dr. Virginia Rice

Dr. Virginia Hill Rice is an emerita professor of nursing at Wayne State University and a member of the College of Nursing Board of Visitors. She holds a doctorate in social psychology and received her master’s as a clinical nurse specialist in medical-surgical nursing from Wayne State in 1965.

She began her time on the Wayne State faculty when she was hired as a part-time assistant professor in the College of Nursing in 1982. Dr. Rice received a full-time associate professor appointment in 1986, was tenured in 1990 and was promoted to full professor in 1997.

During her time at Wayne State, Dr. Rice developed an extensive track record of funded research from the National Institutes of Health, Michigan Department of Community Health, American Heart Association, and Shoman Foundation in Jordan. She has numerous publications and national and international presentations in stress and coping, patient teaching and tobacco control. In addition, Dr. Rice produced two editions of the Handbook of Stress, Coping, and Health: Implications for Nursing Research, Theory, and Practice.

Since her retirement from the university in 2015, Dr. Rice has continued her community service with Crossroads of Michigan and the Holley Institute for the deaf and hearing impaired, which was co-founded by her husband, Dr. William Rice, an alumnus of Wayne State’s School of Medicine.