The University of New Hampshire is mourning the loss of faculty member and former dean Barbara Arrington, who passed away this week after a brief illness.
Arrington was a professor in the health management and policy department and director of the master’s degree program in public health. She was known as an avid supporter of students and a great advocate for public health.
Arrington came to UNH in 2007 to serve as dean of the UNH College of Health and Human Services (CHHS). She is credited with increasing both the research profile of the college and private support for the college during her time as dean. Arrington moved into the role of professor in 2011.
Current CHHS dean Michael Ferrara says, “Barbara’s contributions to the college were outstanding. She was a well-respected member of the team who had an impact on many people. We were very saddened to learn of her passing.”
Arrington received a doctorate in health services research from Saint Louis University and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Missouri. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Columbia University. Before coming to UNH, Arrington served as senior associate dean at the School of Public Health at Saint Louis University’s Health Sciences Center.
All Walks of Learning
Arrington’s loss is being felt by colleagues and peers worldwide who have collaborated with her at the esteemed annual Health Professions Educators’ Summer Symposium for two decades.
Rosemary Caron has attended the last several of these symposiums with Arrington, and she recalls with a smile Arrington’s descriptions of the different types of learning that take place at the seminar.
“She would say early in the day was the pedagogical learning, where by morning’s end your brain hurts. Then at lunch, when you were still carrying on conversations from the morning session, she called that gustatory learning. Then there was kinesthetic learning, where the conversations carried onto the golf course or into other team building activities.”
She had a deep understanding of the nature of the regional healthcare system and was widely published on the topic of public health policy and management.
At UNH, Arrington taught Introduction to the Public Health System, U.S. Healthcare Systems and graduate-level courses in the master’s of public health program. She served as advisor to graduate and undergraduate students and had been serving as faculty advisor to the CHHS class of 2018.
Robert McGrath, chair of the UNH department of health management and policy, says Arrington loved the healthcare field and she loved mentoring and counseling young women in healthcare leadership. “She got in the field with graduate students, working in a very hands-on way,” McGrath says.
Grief counselors will be on hand for Arrington’s students.
Professor Rosemary Caron describes Arrington as a voracious reader, a raconteur and an unrelenting champion of improving our healthcare system. “She had a passion for eventually seeing a healthcare system equitable and accessible by all,” Caron says.
But, she adds, first and foremost, Arrington was an educator.
“She gave of her time to her advisees,” Caron says. “When she met with them it wasn’t five minutes, sign the slip and off you go. She would really try to get to know them and help them formulate or navigate their plans for working in the healthcare field, sharing her decades of experience.
“She loved what she did and she had a lot to offer,” Caron says.
