Professor Linda Sarna, who holds the Lulu Wolf Hassenplug Chair in the UCLA School of Nursing, has been appointed acting dean of the School of Nursing as of July 1, 2014. She will serve a one-year term while Dean Courtney Lyder is on leave.
Sarna served as chair of the UCLA Academic Senate during the 2012–13 academic year, and she chairs the committee that implemented UCLA's tobacco-free policy.
At UCLA and beyond, Sarna is recognized for her scholarship promoting the role of nursing in tobacco control and for her research on the symptoms and quality of life of people with lung cancer. As the principal investigator for the Tobacco Free Nurses Initiative and through her active involvement in tobacco-control policy efforts nationally and internationally, she has emphasized the need to change expectations for nursing education and clinical practice.
Sarna is the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, books, chapters and other publications. Her numerous honors and awards include election as a fellow to the American Academy of Nursing and recognition as a distinguished research professor by the Oncology Nursing Society. She has served on commissions and task forces for the National Cancer Institute, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Institute of Medicine and the University of California, among others. Sarna received her bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing from UCLA, and her doctorate from UC San Francisco.
