College of Health and Human Services students walk outside the new Health Sciences Simulation Center.
The University of New Hampshire has named Kirsten Corazzini dean of the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS), effective March 21, 2022. Corazzini will succeed Mike Ferrarra, who is retiring from the position after leading the college for more than eight years.
Corazzini comes to UNH from the University of Maryland School of Nursing, where she currently serves as professor and associate dean of the school’s Ph.D. program. Prior to her arrival at the University of Maryland in 2019, Corazzini was at Duke University School of Nursing from 2002 to 2019.
After earning her doctorate in gerontology from the University of Massachusetts Boston, Kirsten served as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development.
The focus of her scholarship is on improving care outcomes of chronically ill older adults in long-term care, with a particular focus on persons living with dementia. She has been funded for her research by the National Institutes of Health, the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Alzheimer’s Association and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. She was awarded a Fulbright-Schuman Fellowship in 2015 for her cross-comparative research on professional nursing and nursing home care in the European Union. In recognition of her contributions to the field of gerontology, Kirsten was appointed Fellow, Gerontological Society of America, in 2012.
