Dr. Randolph Rasch
PHD, RN, FNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN
Professor and the 9th and immediate past dean of the Michigan State University College of Nursing
Season 07 - Episode 01
Dr. Randolph Rasch PHD, RN, FNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN
Dr. Randolph Rasch is Professor and the 9th and immediate past dean of the Michigan State University College of Nursing. Dr. Rasch has over thirty years of experience teaching in BSN, MSN, DNP and PhD programs in nursing. He has published and presented in the areas of primary care, HIV risk reduction, and diversity in health care education and clinical practice. Prior to his appointment as dean, Dr. Rasch served as chair of the Department of Community Practice Nursing in the School of Nursing at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and as the director of two well-known family nurse practitioner programs in the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Rasch’s clinical experience includes in-patient surgical care, inner-city public health nurse (PHN) and family nurse practitioner (FNP) in correctional and corporate health settings.
Dr. Rasch was the first State-wide Director of Nursing Services/Programs Director in the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) and lead the development of the Quality Assurance Program for Health Services. Working with another Vanderbilt alum, Dr. Rasch had the opportunity to design and implement a system of health care for the Tennessee Department of Correction that had not existed, previously.
Dr. Rasch has an exemplary history of public service. Notably, he currently serves, by appointment of the Governor of Michigan, as a member of the Michigan Coronavirus-19 Racial Disparities Task Force, chairing the Primary Care Connections Workgroup of the Task Force. Also, by appointment of the Governor, he served on the Implicit Bias Training Advisory Group for the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) – State of Michigan and co-chair of the Task Force to Reduce Mortality and Morbidity in Black Women and Babies (Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies). During his time in Tennessee, he was appointed by the Governor as an inaugural member of the Tennessee Early Comprehensive Systems Advisory Committee to the Division of Maternal and Child Health, Tennessee Department of Health. Dr. Rasch has also served as a consultant and evaluator of nursing education programs for all degree levels in institutions nation-wide and as advisor and evaluator for clinical programs across the United States. Dr. Rasch civic and community service includes various roles on the board of the Choral Society of Durham (North Carolina) and the Lansing Symphony Orchestra (Michigan).
A Fellow in the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (FAANP) and a Distinguished Scholar, and Fellow, in the National Academies of Practice (FNAP) and Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN), Dr. Rasch holds the distinction of being the first African American male graduate of the nursing program at Andrews University and the first African American male masters prepared nurse practitioner (a graduate of the FNP program at Vanderbilt School of Nursing). He is the first African American male to hold the PhD in nursing and was the first African American male public health nurse in the State of Michigan. Other honors include Distinguished Alumni of the School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin; The Lulu Wolf Hassenplug Award for Distinguished Career in Nursing, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing; and The Dr. Gene Tranbarger Writing Award, the American Association for Men in Nursing. One of his favorite award, however, is Colonel, Aide de Camp, Governor’s Staff of the State of Tennessee.
