Clarke College appoints nursing head

DUBUQUE -- Clarke College has appointed Ret. Captain Roberta Lavin as chairwoman of the college's nursing department. Lavin, who holds the academic rank of professor at Clarke, officially began on July 1.

With over 20 years of public health leadership experience, Lavin most recently served as director of the Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response for the federal Administration on Children and Families. At the same time, she served as the designated federal officer for the National Commission on Children and Disasters.

On a federal level, Lavin has served as chief of staff and chief policy officer for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, during which time she coordinated implementation of presidential and secretarial initiatives. She has also been a special assistant in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and director of the secretary's command center.

Before that, she was chief of field operations, deputy chief of clinical operations and emergency medical response team coordinator for the Division of Immigration and Health Services.

She has had adjunct or clinical faculty appointments at several health programs including Johns Hopkins and George Mason University. 

She holds a doctorate in nursing from Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, a master's degree in emergency/disaster management from American Military University, a master's degree in nursing from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in religious studies from the University of Tennessee.