WS Chronicle

Dr. Dennis Sherrod, a professor who holds the Forsyth Medical Center Endowed Chair of Recruitment and Retention in the Division of Nursing at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU), has been selected by the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina to receive one of the 19th Annual Awards for Excellence in Teaching.

The 17 recipients, representing each of the UNC campuses, were nominated by special committees on their home campuses and the final selection was made by the Board of Governors Committee on Personnel and Tenure.  Sherrod, who has more than 30 years of nursing and nurse educator experience as well as over a decade of recruitment and retention expertise, will receive a commemorative bronze medallion and a $7,500 prize that will be presented at WSSU’s commencement ceremony on May 18.

In addition to teaching theory, research, informatics and scholarly projects in the Division of Nursing, which is housed in the School of Health Sciences, Sherrod also researches recruitment and retention issues relating to students, nursing faculty, staff nurses and nurse managers.  He is the first to hold the Endowed Chair of Recruitment and Retention, which is the first of its kind in the nation.

Since joining WSSU in 2001, Sherrod has also served as director of graduate programs and as the advanced nurse educator coordinator.  In addition to his teaching duties, he also provides guest lectures related to nursing and health law in the Department of Healthcare Management, lectures to undergraduate Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in the nursing program and, in the past, has taught health systems courses in the Department of Physical Therapy.
Prior to joining WSSU, Sherrod was associate director of the North Carolina Center for Nursing.  On the national level, he has served as president of the Center for American Nurses and was one of 20 nurses in the nation selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Executive Fellow.  He is a past president of the North Carolina Nurses Association and has served on numerous nurse-focused statewide committees.

Sherrod earned his undergraduate degree in nursing at Barton College and his master’s degree in nursing education at East Carolina.