Margaret “Marge” Dean, R.N., CS-BC, GNP-BC, MSN, geriatric nurse practitioner and faculty associate in geriatrics at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Medicine at Amarillo and the TTUHSC Anita Thigpen Perry School of Nursing in Lubbock, will be one of 50 nurse practitioners inducted into the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) Fellows on June 24 in Las Vegas.

AANP Fellows are nurse practitioner leaders who have made outstanding contributions to health care through nurse practitioner education, policy, clinical practice or research. There are less than 300 AANP Fellows in the U.S.

“Marge has demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment not only to this institution, but to the care of geriatric patients,” said Yondell Masten, Ph.D., R.N., interim dean of the TTUHSC School of Nursing.

Dean’s areas of expertise include Alzheimer’s disease and teaching primary care in nurse practitioner studies and other advanced practice nursing classes with a special focus on geriatrics. In practice, Dean’s focus is primary care in internal medicine with patients ages 55 and older — dementia screening and diagnosis, chronic disease care, rehab and in-home mental and physical evaluations of Adult Protective Services clients.

In 2010, the Panhandle Nurse Practitioners Association named Dean Nurse Practitioner of the Year for her work with Amarillo nurse practitioners.

She earned her BSN from West Texas A&M University in 1980, and her MSN in 1985. Dean received her geriatric nurse practitioner post-masters certificate in 1993. She is a certified gerontological nurse practitioner and clinical specialist in community health.

The AANP represents the interests of more than 125,000 nurse practitioners currently practicing in the U.S. and continually advocates at local, state and federal levels for the recognition of nurse practitioners as providers of high-quality, cost-effective and personalized health care.

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