Joint PhD Program in Urban Systems

David Anthony (Tony) Forrester., Ph.D., R.N., ANEF
Professor and Senior Associate Dean, Academic Affairs and Administration
UMDNJ - School of Nursing
forreste@umdnj.edu

Biography

Tony Forrester is a Professor and Senior Associate Dean at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) School of Nursing (SN)

Dr. Forrester graduated from the University of Texas System School of Nursing with a B.S.N., and from the University of Texas at Arlington with an M.S.N., and from New York University with a Ph.D. in nursing.  He has been a nurse for 36 years and has been a nurse educator at Rutgers University College of Nursing (6 years), Pace University’s Leinhard School of Nursing (3 years), and at UMDNJ-SN (23 years).  His areas of expertise and specialization in nursing clinical practice are: adult emergency/trauma, critical care, and psychiatric/mental health nursing.  Dr. Forrester is a widely known scholar, serves as a peer reviewer for a number of professional/scholarly nursing journals, and has published extensively in the nursing and other disciplines’ literature on a wide range of topics, including: HIV/AIDS; critical care family needs; aggressiveness of nursing care at the end of life; gender-related health, including minority men’s and women’s health; falls risk assessment and prevention in the acute care setting; physical restraints management; and nursing history.  He is a member of UMDNJ’s Stuart Cook, M.D. Master Educators’ Guild and a Fellow in the National League for Nursing’s Academy of Nursing Education.  He is an active member of a number of professional and scholarly associations including the: American Nurses Association, New Jersey State Nurses Association, and Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI).  Dr. Forrester is currently serving as the leader for eight international expert faculty members in the STTI Nurse Faculty Mentored Leadership Academy (NFLA).

Dr. Forrester was recruited to UMDNJ prior to the establishment of the School of Nursing as the University’s seventh colleague school.  He provided leadership in the development of the nursing curricula for our joint UMDNJ-MCC A.S. in Nursing and UMDNJ-RCNJ B.S.N. Programs, as well as the UMDNJ-SN M.S.N. Program.  He served as the School’s first Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research (1988-1995).  In this role, he provided leadership as all of SN’s academic programs were NLNAC accredited and spread to five campus locations throughout New Jersey.  Dr. Forrester later served as the Assistant Dean for the School’s Northern Region (1999-2004) and was administratively responsible for the faculty, staff and all nursing program offerings on the Edison, Ramapo, and Newark Campuses.  He provided guidance and  leadership for the establishment of the D.N.P. Program and the Ph.D. in Urban Health Systems Program which is a successful collaboration offered jointly by UMDNJ, Rutgers University, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.  He has served in numerous other roles within SN, including: Director, Stanley S. Bergen, Jr. Center for the Study of Urban Health Systems (2003–2005); Director, UMDNJ-SN Faculty Practice (2004–2005); and Director, New Jersey Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Center for Evidence Based Nursing Practice which is an international collaboration between UMDNJ-SN and JBI (2004–2005).  During his tenure at UMDNJ-SN, Dr. Forrester has received over $1.7 million in extra-mural research and training grants from the federal government and a number of private foundations.  At the University-wide level, Dr. Forrester works closely with the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic and Clinical Affairs in his role as chairperson of the UMDNJ Newark Campus Committee on Scientific Integrity.  He also represents the SN faculty as a member of the Board of Governors of the UMDNJ Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the UMDNJ AAUP Council.