Azita Emami

Azita Emami, Ph.D., MSN, BSN, RN, FAAN, was elected to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Board of Trustees in April 2022, effective July 2022.

Emami is a leader in the field of nursing and currently serves as The Robert G. and Jean A. Reid Executive Dean of Nursing at the University of Washington (UW) School of Nursing. In this role, she emphasizes the increasingly global nature of nursing and the importance of educating nurses to deliver care in a wide variety of culturally and economically diverse settings. Under her leadership, the UW School of Nursing announced in February 2021 that it was launching the Center for Antiracism in Nursing. The first of its kind in the nation, the Center will tackle racism in healthcare from the classroom to research to the doctor’s office.

Emami’s academic leadership experience spans two countries and 25 years, including positions as the dean of the College of Nursing at Seattle University; head of the Division of Nursing in the Department of Neurobiology Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet; and academic leader in the Division of Elder Care in the Department of Nursing at the Karolinska Institutet. Her research has resulted in more than 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals nationally and internationally on cross-cultural care, elder care, the development of cultural competence, and specific diseases and conditions.

Emami earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the renowned Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, where she grew up after emigrating from Iran. She went on to gain a master’s degree in international healthcare from Karolinska and the Red Cross College of Nursing; a nursing education degree with a teaching certification, and a doctorate in medical sciences from Karolinska. She is a proud recipient of the UW Women’s Center’s Women of Courage award.