Sammar Nasser Named Director of Research Partnership

Dr. Sammar Nasser has agreed to join UM-Dearborn as Research Assistant Professor in the School of Education and director of the UM-Dearborn/Oakwood Healthcare Research Partnership.

Dr. Nasser is a graduate of Lincoln Park High School who received her Ph.D. in Physiology from the Wayne State University School of Medicine in 2011. She also holds a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a Master of Science degree in Physician Assistant Studies from Wayne State University. She had 10 years experience working as a Physician Assistant in the Department of Internal Medicine at Wayne State, and she is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership in the School of Medicine and Health Science at George Washington University in Washington, DC. She has led or been part of the research team on about a dozen funded research projects, and she has more than two dozen publications in peer-reviewed journals or books.

She will direct the new research partnership that is built upon the current collaboration among the Oakwood Center for Exceptional Families (CEF), the University of Michigan-Dearborn Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC), and the University of Michigan-Dearborn School of Education. The current collaboration supports early childhood educators and healthcare professionals -- who bring different professional knowledge, training and backgrounds -- to work in concert to assist the development of children with and without disabilities and to model best practices for teachers and healthcare providers. The new research partnership will promote transdisciplinary research that can enrich significantly the knowledge and evidence base in relevant fields, and bring important new perspectives to the intersection of education and healthcare. Under the auspices of the Institute, education and healthcare students and professionals, and students and professionals from other related disciplines, can participate in research activities.

Dr. Nasser's appointment at UM-Dearborn will commence in January 2013. Please join me in welcoming her to campus and in supporting her as she takes on this important new work.