Cizik School of Nursing

Cizik School of Nursing Dean Diane M. Santa Maria, DrPH, RN

Message from the Dean

With increased demands on the health care system, the need for highly skilled nurses has never been greater. Students at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston are prepared to become tomorrow's caregivers guiding patients through health challenges, researchers improving health outcomes, and educators helping fill the growing nursing shortage.

Every gift to Cizik School of Nursing makes a difference—for our students, faculty, and the patients who rely on the nurses we educate. Philanthropy has been essential to the school's ongoing growth and will continue to be long into the future.

Diane M. Santa Maria, DrPH, RN

Dean
The Jane and Robert Cizik Distinguished Chair
Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair in Nursing Education Leadership
Professor, Department of Research

Giving opportunities

Our fundraising priorities reflect our emphasis on patient-focused nursing education and research.

Creating scholarships for future nurses

Cizik School of Nursing offers a wide range of degree programs to train nursing students, from undergraduate degrees for students eager to enter the workforce to advanced practice degrees for aspiring nursing leaders. Our Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program is ranked first in Texas and 16th nationwide, providing exceptional training that prepares students to enter various health care fields.

Your generosity to scholarships can help address the nursing shortage and build healthier communities by supporting the next generation of nurses who will provide compassionate care to our families, friends, and neighbors.

Female CSON Student in blue scrubs with hands on hips standing in front of a medical backdrop surrounded by medical equipment

Interior backdrop of CSON Smart apartment with two females standing close to each other and a tablet-mounted Segway virtual unit between them.

Advancing innovative research

Nursing research focuses on patients—improving their quality of life and developing tools and methods for the nurses who serve them. With 90% of older adults nationwide wanting to stay in their own homes, Cizik School of Nursing built a fully furnished Smart Apartment to test technology to help achieve this goal. The apartment includes sensors, monitors, robots, and other devices that enable researchers to evaluate technologies that help monitor the self-management of chronic diseases and detect health and behavior changes in aging and disabled adults.

By making a gift to this area, you can support our experts as they advance innovative projects like this to improve health across the lifespan.

Harnessing technology to prepare tomorrow's nurses

Cizik School of Nursing constantly innovates to provide students with realistic training that prepares them for the wide range of clinical scenarios they will encounter during their careers. Technological innovations allow us to create advanced simulations, giving future nurses the opportunity to hone their skills before entering practice.

Your gift can help train the next generation of nurses by supporting educational programs like the Simulation and Clinical Performance Laboratory, which uses advanced technology to enable students to practice a variety of clinical scenarios, such as childbirth and emergency situations. Using lifelike manikins, virtual reality simulators, and other state-of-the-art technology, students gain hands-on experience to learn skills before working with real patients.

SIM Lab

Impact stories of philanthropy

The impact of philanthropy is seen in the lives of those who receive care from our health providers, the discoveries our researchers make, and the numerous communities our initiatives reach.