Meet Dean Karen Rose

by Susan Neale

Our new dean’s portfolio includes research and publications in dementia care, 42 years of experience as a nurse and 17 years of academic experience at University of Virginia, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and The Ohio State University.

Karen Rose, PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN, knows her leadership style. “I’m a servant leader,” she says. “I really try to think, ‘What can I do to bring forward and help develop others?’ ” 

Rose has a long history of service that goes back to her childhood in the rural community of Orkney Springs in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She and her husband Kevin still have a home there across the street from Shrine Mont, the prosperous Episcopal retreat and conference center that three generations of her family have managed and directed since 1948. “This notion of service to others starts there,” she said. Rose grew up working at Shrine Mont as a lifeguard, cook, waitress, housekeeper – “Whatever was needed.”

Her focus on gerontology, and on caring for caregivers, also has its roots in her childhood in Orkney Springs. “I’m a down-home girl. It’s what we did,” she said, laughing.

“Being with older adults has always been a part of who I am. I grew up with a lot of older adults – grandparents, great-grandparents,” including her maternal grandfather, who was bedridden with Alzheimer’s disease. “I remember being deeply touched by helping my grandmother and just spending time with him,” she said. She also helped her older family members with farm chores. “I’ve picked many a potato,” she admitted, “and slopped some hogs!”

For Rose, service to others isn’t about martyrdom. It’s about doing something she really enjoys. “That’s the part about being a dean, about being an educator. You can really change people’s lives.”

From first generation to post-doc

Rose’s academic career prepared her well to lead the College of Nursing at Ohio State. 

Determined to have a caring profession, she set out as a first-generation college student to a small college in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah University, to earn her BSN. She went straight on to Virginia Commonwealth University for her MS in nursing. She worked as a nurse for 16 years before attending the prestigious doctoral program at University of Virginia (UVA) for her PhD and completed postdoctoral study at University of Pennsylvania in sleep disturbances in dementia and family caregiving.

Rose taught at UVA for 10 years, then accepted the McMahan-McKinley Endowed Professorship of Gerontology at University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). “They were specifically looking for someone who focused on dementia family caregiving,” she said, to help build resources for the Pat Summitt Center at the University of Tennessee Medical Center (UTMC). “They were trying to coalesce around family caregiving between the college of nursing and UTMC. I was brought in for the endowed professorship role to try to help build research and infrastructure. My research is in dementia and family caregiving, so it was a perfect match.”

Three years later in 2019, “Bern Melnyk called with a great opportunity,” asking Rose to direct the College of Nursing’s Center for Healthy Aging, Self-Management and Complex Care, and to continue teaching. Rose had enjoyed promoting research at UTK but wanted to grow in academic administrative roles.

In 2022, Rose became vice dean of the College of Nursing. “Here, [at Ohio State] I was surrounded by an entire center of researchers. It was a win-win,” she said.

“I’m deeply motivated by servant leadership. What role can I play in changing the lives of others?”
-Karen Rose, PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN

She credits her nursing career as equally important in preparing her for her current role. In the 16 years between her MSN and PhD, Rose took on several different nursing roles, from bedside to administration. Rose learned about caring for underserved populations as a travel nurse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. As a head nurse at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, she was responsible for many middle-management tasks including, “hiring new staff, staffing, managing budgets, managing patient logistics, interacting a lot with physicians and members of the healthcare team.”

“Nursing staff development has always been part of who I am,” Rose said. In her 10 years at UVA hospital, she started as a critical care nurse and progressed to head of nursing staff development. In that role, she ran a manager training program and was head of patient community education. Rose also spent a year with the Alzheimer’s Association administratively, building community connections to support family caregivers before returning to college for her PhD.

Her people

In the last few years, Rose’s two daughters have set out on their own career paths: Lettie just finished law school at Georgetown University and has taken a position with a law firm in New York and Lucy is studying at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rose retreated to Virginia and was able to help provide care for her father, who passed away in 2022.

Today, Rose feels incredibly fortunate and privileged about her new role as dean of the College of Nursing. “We have a national and international presence. It’s such a great, forward-thinking institution. What’s not to be excited about? It’s pretty awesome!” Rose said, listing many more positive attributes, from our stellar research centers to our high academic rankings.

What does she like best about our college? “It’s the people. Great faculty who really think differently and are committed to the student experience; fabulous staff who really care about the students. They are unsung heroes.” In an all-college kickoff meeting in August, she compared the College of Nursing to “a beautiful, flowering tree” with firm roots made of the people who make it run.

Rose is excited about opportunities to grow partnerships in the ecosystem this tree lives in, which includes The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and our seven health science colleges at Ohio State. To show her clear commitment to addressing the issue of nurse workforce development through partnerships, she invited several hospital leaders to the kickoff, including Wexner Medical Center CEO John J. Warner, MD.

She has already settled into the dean’s suite, started to form new partnerships and is looking for ways to keep the College of Nursing on the map and honor its “culture of discovery.” She’s passionate about increasing the nursing workforce, both through new academic programs and through finding opportunities to collaborate. And she is committed to being a servant leader to the people of the College of Nursing.

“What I love about being a nurse and an administrator is opening doors for people,” Rose said. “I try to provide opportunities to the people we have and grow people here. So when people asked if I’d be bringing in new staff or faculty with me – ‘Did you bring any people?’ I said, ‘You are my people.’ ”