Remembering Judy DeMers

As you might have heard, the namesake of the SMHS Office of Student Affairs & Admissions, Judy DeMers, passed away recently. Judy retired from the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences in 2010 after spending 27 years as the associate dean for student affairs and admissions at the School. In addition, she devoted years to serving as a legislator in both the North Dakota House and Senate.

As SMHS Dean Dr. Joshua Wynne put it when Judy retired in 2010, “Judy embodies the best of the North Dakota ethic, and all that is good at the School of Medicine & Health Sciences. She is honest, hard-working, smart, helpful, and dedicated to her students. As chair of the executive associate dean search committee, she was responsible for attracting me to UND almost six years ago. So, in no small measure, I owe Judy a debt of gratitude for my appointment as dean. She has given extraordinarily outstanding service to our students for decades, and while she will be irreplaceable, she has earned her retirement. Knowing Judy, though, her ‘retirement’ likely will be anything but retiring, and I suspect she will continue to find ways to serve, as she has for decades. All of us wish her the best in the next phase of her illustrious career.”

Judy was the valedictorian and summa cum laude graduate of the UND College of Nursing in 1966 who also earned an M.Ed. from the University of Washington in 1973. Judy joined the UND faculty in 1969 as an instructor in public health nursing and was the associate director of, and instructor in, the MEDEX project (later our physician assistant program) in the SMHS Department of Family and Community Medicine from 1970 to 1972. She then spent time as a research associate in the Office of Research and Medical Education at the University of Washington’s medical school through 1977 before returning to UND as assistant professor and director of the Family Nurse Practitioner Program, where she served until 1982. From 1982 through 1983, Judy served as the associate director of the SMHS Office of Rural Health and was promoted to the rank of associate professor. Judy was appointed the associate dean for student affairs and admissions in 1983, a position she held until her retirement.

Thanks for everything, Judy!