About the Dean

Dean Patricia Starck, DSN, RN, FAAN, has been affiliated with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston since 1984, where she also holds the position of The John P. McGovern Distinguished Professor. The Dean's commitment to her work as a nurse and educator is evident in her numerous leadership roles and contributions to her field. Dean Starck's accomplishments include more than 30 years of educational and administrative responsibilities combined with nearly 45 years of nursing experience.

Dean Starck received her doctorate from the University of Alabama in Birmingham in 1979 and her master’s of nursing from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. Dean Starck continually enhances her education in nursing, executive management and leadership. She is a 1997 graduate of the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University. She is a long standing board member of the Viktor Frankl Institute for Logotherapy and locally is a member of the Yates Children Memorial Foundation at the Mental Health Association. She is also on the Advisory Council of the Holocaust Museum Houston for its upcoming series on Medical Ethics.

Dean Starck has been honored as a lifetime member of the Alumni Association, The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston; Leadership Texas; and as a Fellow, American Academy of Nursing. She holds the John P. McGovern, M.D., Distinguished Professorship in Nursing. She and Dr. McGovern published an award winning book, The Invisible Dimension of Illness: Human Suffering.

Starck also has been active at the state and national levels in solving the nursing shortage crisis and promoting ideas for health care reform. She was appointed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to serve on the Statewide Health Coordinating Council and serves as co-chair of the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Study Advisory Committee.

A colleague from the Medical School and his wife, who have been a long time supporters of the School of Nursing, have established an endowed scholarship in Dean Starck’s name. The PARTNERS, a school support group, have also recently endowed a professorship in her name.