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Diana Kostrzewski named interim dean

Provost taps nursing professional with more than 40 years experience in healthcare delivery/education to lead College

College of Nursing & Professional Disciplines
Diana Kostrzewski, a UND Nursing alumna and native of Warren, Minn., has been named interim dean of the UND College of Nursing & Professional Disciplines, taking over for current dean, Gayle Roux, who will leave her position as the end of the month.

University of North Dakota Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Tom DiLorenzo announced today that Diana Kostrzewski has been appointed interim dean of the UND College of Nursing & Professional Disciplines (CNPD), effective Jan. 1, 2019.

Kostrzewski will take over, in an interim role, for current CNPD Dean Gayle Roux, who announced in October that she would be leaving the position at the end of the year.

Kostrzewski, a UND Nursing alumna and native of Warren, Minn.,  has been serving as a clinical associate professor of nursing and graduate program chair at UND.

“I am very pleased that Dr. Kostrzewski has agreed to lead the College of Nursing & Professional Disciplines as interim dean,” DiLorenzo said. “She brings an exciting blend of experience and innovative thinking in an array of areas important to the continued success of the College. Those skills were acquired over a 40-year nursing career that includes roles as a staff nurse, supervisor and nurse administrator in all forms of health care settings as well as a nursing educator and administrator on traditional campuses and online.”

Kostrzewski has extensive experience in curriculum development including online and distance learning, program and project management, staff and faculty mentoring and relations, compliance and accreditation, and performance improvement. She served as a dean at other institutions before joining UND.

Teaching and leading

As dean, Dr. Kostrzewski will further align the CNPD with the One UND strategic plan, implement the online delivery of academic programs, continue to support excellence in teaching, recruit more students to programs in her college to meet state and regional employment demands, and enhance scholarship in the College.

Diana Kostrzewksi
Diana Kostrzewksi

“I am truly honored to serve UND and the dedicated team of faculty and staff in our College,” Kostrzewski said. “I look forward to maintaining the strong reputation that’s been fostered under Dean Roux and carrying on a tradition of nursing, social work and dietetics excellence at UND.”

A reception will be planned at the beginning of spring semester to introduce her to the campus at-large and to welcome her to her new role.

In a nursing career spanning more than four decades, Kostrzewski has worked in or served as an administrator in long-term care, home care, hospice, public-health and nursing education roles. For the past 10 years, Kostrzewski has been teaching in or leading nursing programs, sometimes as dean, in graduate, bachelor’s, and associate’s degree-level programs.

Kostrzewski joined UND in April after serving as assistant vice president of nursing and national dean of nursing for Minneapolis-based Zenith Education Group. Before that, she was the dean of nursing at the Denver School of Nursing, overseeing the education of 700 nursing students at any given time.

Other stops in Kostrzewski’s career include director of licensing and accreditation and chair of the nursing program at Rasmussen College in Bloomington, Minn.; national dean of nursing and allied health programs at Colorado Technical University in Colorado Springs; director of nursing programs at Lake Superior College in Duluth; and assistant professor of nursing at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth.

Kostrzewski received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Minnesota State University, Moorhead (then Moorhead State University), and her master’s degree from UND in 1997. She earned her Ph.D. in postsecondary and adult education from Capella University.

Kostrzewski also is a member of The North Dakota Board of Nursing’s Education Committee.