Houston,
15
April
2021
|
10:20 AM
America/Chicago

Nursing Faculty Yvette Rolle, Angelina Chambers and Phyllis Beck Kritek Retire in Spring 2021

Read about the careers of three UST nursing faculty members – Professor Yvette Rolle, Dr. Angelina Chambers and Dr. Phyllis Beck Kritek, who will retire in spring 2021. UST celebrates their contributions to the Peavy School of Nursing Program.

Make Plans to Come to the Faculty Retirement Party

All 2020 & 2021 retirees will be celebrated at a May 12 party from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in Scanlan Room, Jerabeck Center. Retirees include Charles Krohn, Robin Williamson, Carl Scott, Nicole Casarez, Lee Williames, Sr. Marie Faubert, Ravi Srinivas, Fr. Donald Nesti, (late) Sheila Waggoner, John Starner, Livia Bornigia, Michele Simms, Robert LeBlanc, Randy Soffer, Eduardo Torres, Angelina Chambers, Phyllis Kritek and Yvette Rolle.

 

 

Nursing Professor Angelina N. Chambers, Ph.D, RN,
Retires to Focus on Systemic Racism

Professor and Associate Dean for the Peavy School of Nursing Operations and Undergraduate Studies Angelina Chambers is retiring after nine years of service. Chambers played a vital role in the re-establishment of the nursing program. She held the Cullen Trust for Higher Education Endowed Chair in Nursing.

Chamber’s Areas of Expertise

Her specialties in nursing include women’s health, nurse-midwifery and qualitative research. Chambers taught the OB/GYN-Childbearing Family course, Clinical Inquiry Research course and Optimizing Population Health through Healing Environments (a doctoral course).

“It has been wonderful to have the opportunity to create a School of Nursing with a 21st century approach to education,” Chambers said. “This approach includes developing new strategies, which increase diversity, inclusion and holistic methods of teaching nursing.”

Chamber’s role as associate dean was to take care of the day-to-day operations of the SON, which include:

  • hiring adjunct faculty and creating the associated budget for the dean
  • resolving problems/issues between faculty, students and staff
  • making sure that all UST and PSON policies are being followed
  • submitting information to the Texas Board of Nursing to allow our students to take NCLEX licensing exam, etc.
  • supervising the operationalizing of the Traditional BSN and the Accelerated BSN programs

In addition, she developed new policies and procedures that were holistic and fair across the board to all students, regardless of their needs.

“We developed multiple ‘safety nets’ so that no student was ever lost or fell through the cracks in our system,” Chambers said.

Dean Poldi Tschirch views Dr. Chambers’ approaching retirement with gratitude for the gift of a remarkable colleague for the past nine years and a sense of personal loss. “No one could have had a more effective and supportive Associate Dean than Dr. Chambers,” she said. “Her competence, integrity, wisdom and deep commitment to our holistic philosophy have been a constant source of strength and support to me during the challenging task of building a school of nursing from the ground up, maintaining high standards and delivering on our mission. She has guided and inspired me in creation of a diverse and inclusive nursing community at the Peavy School of Nursing. I haven’t yet fully come to terms with how much I will miss her. However, she has my total support in her plans to focus on ending systemic racism and there is no one better to help heal the world than her.”

Chambers’ Nursing Career and Accolades

Chambers’ nursing career began in 1976 in New York. She became the staff nurse-midwife at a hospital in Brooklyn, New York, in 1981. Among her many career accolades are:

  • The honoree at the Dorothea M. Lang “30+ Years” Esteemed Midwife Reception, 2017 American College of Nurse-Midwives 62nd Annual Meeting & Exhibition, Chicago, Illinois
  • Outstanding Nurse, Nursing Celebration 2013, Texas Nursing Association (TNA)-District 9, Houston, Texas
  • Faculty Recognition Award, Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, Connecticut
  • John P. McGovern Outstanding Teacher Award, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Nursing

Chamber’s Retirement Plans

Chambers plans after retirement are to spend the next 20 years of her life ending systemic racism because it hurts everyone in the world.

Assistant Professor of Nursing
Yvette Rolle, DNP, CNE, RNC-OB, 
Transitions from Full-Time Teaching

Prof. Yvette RollePerinatal and maternal newborn Nursing Assistant Professor Yvette Rolle, will retire from UST and the School of Nursing in spring 2021 after five years of service. She has been a nurse educator since 1998.

Rolle, who has a Doctorate in Nurse Practice, teaches Pharmacology, Foundations of Nursing, Medical Surgical Nursing, Maternal Newborn Nursing and Clinical Inquiry.

Rolle said, “I am committed to students successfully completing every course that I have taught at every academic organization where I have worked over the years.”

Rolle’s Valuable Role in the SON

During her tenure at UST, Rolle was able to implement innovative teaching and learning strategies.

“I created evolving case studies and simulation modules that were used to promote student clinical judgment and clinical decision making,” she said. “I utilized group assignments and online discussion questions to allow students to learn to collaborate and develop critical thinking skills. I actively facilitated clinical learning in the hospital environment and skills instruction in the lab setting.”

Setting a Standard and Continuing to serve

While serving at UST, Rolle was nominated for a teaching excellence award.

Rolle plans to keep employing her excellent teaching skills as she continues with UST as adjunct faculty.

“I guess I truly will always participate in nursing in some limited capacity,” Rolle said.

Future of the Field

Rolle sees a continuing evolution of quality care.

She said, “Perinatal and obstetric nursing will continue to evolve as nurses embrace evidence-based practice for quality improvement in nursing care. I think that evidence-based practice interventions in maternity nursing will predominate in practice settings now and in the future.”

Dean Tschirch sees Dr. Rolle as “a remarkable clinician and educator. The depth of her clinical knowledge, her teaching skills and her calm and steady presence have contributed greatly to our students and our community. She is an amazing role model for our students and her faculty colleagues. During the pandemic, she set an example for all of us in her capacity to respond to and adapt to one challenge after the next calmly and effectively. I am truly thankful that after spending some time with her family and friends in her native Dominica that she plans to return to work with us in an adjunct faculty capacity.”

Nursing Professor Phyllis Beck Kritek, RN, Ph.D, FAAN,
Retires to Focus on Coaching for Elderhood

Dr. Phyllis Beck KritekNursing Professor Phyllis Beck Kritek, RN, Ph.D, FAAN, who first served as a consultant at UST in 2014 “to the embryonic” Peavy School of Nursing, later joined the faculty to establish the Doctorate in Nurse Practice program. Kritek had previously served as the founding director of the doctoral program at University of Texas at Galveston School of Nursing from 1997-2000.

Kritek’s Role in Establishing DNP Program

Her role in establishing the Doctor of Nursing Practice at UST was to “design a program, develop the necessary processes, policies and curriculum, design implementation processes and protocols and essentially usher the program into existence,” she said. “I did this as a telecommuting faculty member, which made me uniquely equipped to deal with the transitions the school experienced when required to move to Covid-19 practices,” she said.

Kritek notes that she accepted the offer of a teaching position specifically because “I admired and believed in the Peavy School’s mission, vision, philosophy and framework. My summary of that viewpoint was that this initiative was the closest thing I had ever seen to the vision of Florence Nightingale.”

Her clinical expertise is in Community Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing, Conflict Engagement, Nursing Research, Organizational Theory, Nursing Education and Nursing Leadership.

Kritek taught two core courses in the DNP program - Relational Dimensions of Healing: Communication and Conflict Engagement and Healing Environments in Complex Adaptive Systems, she also taught transformational nursing leadership courses.

Dean Poldi Tschirch says, “Apart from our guiding spirit Sr. Mary Martina Casey, no one has contributed more to helping us articulate our identity, philosophy and mission as a school than Dr. Kritek. She played an instrumental role as the facilitator for the original interdisciplinary Commission for the Design of Catholic Nursing Education for the 21st Century in February 2010. Our holistic philosophy and healing curricular framework, developed under her guidance, have provided a compelling vision for our faculty, students, and community supporters and a strong foundation for our undergraduate and graduate programs. She played an instrumental role in designing and implementing our Doctor of Nursing Practice program, which opened in fall 2018 and provided major support for the initial accreditation process for that program,” Tschirch said.

“Phyllis has a particular gift for mentorship and has provided guidance for our faculty in scholarship development,” Tschirch said. “She played a major role in supporting four nursing faculty members in successfully preparing for promotion in academic rank. Her deep experience in nursing practice and education, her wisdom, beautiful writing, masterful teaching, skillful and courageous communication are part of the fabric of the Peavy School of Nursing now and we will continue to benefit from these gifts as we continue on our journey.”

Kritek’s Career

She began her nurse educator career in 1971 when she joined St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing, in St. Louis, MO, as an instructor in psychiatric-mental health nursing. In 2003, after a long nursing career, which includes a deanship and directorship of a research center, Kritek left academe for 13 years to start her own company, courage, as a conflict engagement specialist. As a sole proprietor, she helped clients as a consultant, trainer, facilitator, mediator and coach.

Kritek authored and co-authored four books including one published by the Government Printing Office in 2015 titled, “Realizing the Future of Nursing: VA Nurses Tell Their Story.”

Next Phase: Become Coach focusing on Elderhood

She does not plan on retiring. She is starting the next chapter of her life.

“I am in the process of completing training as a professional coach at the Hudson Institute of Coaching,” Kritek said. “Upon completion, I will seek International Coaching Federation certification and offer coaching services with a focus on Coaching for Elderhood.”