Professor and Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing
Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics

When Antonia M. Villarruel decided to be a nurse, she never envisioned that she would become a pioneering nurse-researcher who would improve the health of underserved Latino communities or dean of the number one nursing school in the world. By taking advantage of opportunities — including earning an MSN at Penn Nursing  Dr. Villarruel is now the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at Penn Nursing and an internationally renowned leader in research, policy and practice. The sixth dean of the School, she is only the second alumna to serve in this position and the first dean to serve who has prior and current NIH funding. 

At Penn Nursing, students have the intellectual capacity to undergo the rigors of a nursing science curriculum while surrounded by world-class faculty who are invested in their success, always providing an array of possibilities to discover and develop their passions!

Education

PhD – Wayne State University, Detroit, MI – 1993

MSN – University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA – 1982  

BSN  – Nazareth College, Kalamazoo, MI – 1978