Sandra C. Brown, PhD, APRN, FNP-BC, CNE, ANEF, FAANP, FAAN
Dean and Professor, College of Nursing and Allied Health
Southern University and A&M College
Baton Rouge, LA
Biography
Dr. Sandra C. Brown serves in a dual leadership role as Vice Chancellor of Health Initiatives and Dean of Southern University’s College of Nursing and Allied Health. She has achieved international prominence and made enduring contributions to reducing health disparities and advancing social welfare. Spanning more than three decades, her work has influenced the health outcomes of Louisiana citizens through clinical research, practice, and academic leadership. She is nationally recognized for her exemplary efforts to expand access to care for medically underserved communities and for her outstanding contributions during disaster recovery.
Dr. Brown serves as an Ambassador for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Health Professionals’ National Health Service Corps and is a National League of Nursing Health Information Technology Scholar. She holds some of the profession’s highest honors, including Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, Fellow of the Academy of Nursing Education, and Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.
In recognition of her scholarly contributions and global impact on healthcare, Dr. Brown has been inducted into the Louisiana Nurses Foundation Hall of Fame and the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Nursing Hall of Fame. She is also a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Black Nurses Association and was named one of eight Great Louisianians of the Year by Louisiana Life magazine. Most recently, she was named Nursing School Administrator of the Year by the Louisiana Nurses Foundation for her visionary leadership.
In April 2020, Governor John Bel Edwards appointed Dr. Brown to serve as Co-Chair of the Louisiana COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. In this role, she led efforts to address the inequities disproportionately affecting communities during the coronavirus pandemic. The task force examined opportunities to expand access to high-quality medical care and improve health outcomes across the state. Its work ultimately led to the creation of a Health Equity Dashboard, which continues to serve as a foundation and resource for addressing disparities in vulnerable populations and improving Louisiana’s overall health rankings.
In 1994, Dr. Brown became the first African American to earn the Doctor of Nursing Science degree from Louisiana State University Medical Center, now LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, marking a historic milestone. She earned a Master of Nursing degree from LSU Medical Center in New Orleans in 1985 and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, in 1981. She later completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge in 2000 and a postdoctoral Family Nurse Practitioner Certificate Program at the University of Tennessee in Memphis in 1998. She is nationally certified as an academic nurse educator by the National League for Nursing and is board-certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner.
As Dean of the College of Nursing and Allied Health, Dr. Brown leads five academic departments offering 11-degree programs and serving over 2,400 students, nearly one-third of the university’s enrollment. The College includes the School of Nursing, the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, the Department of Rehabilitation, Disability Studies, and Counseling, and the Department of Therapeutic Recreation and Leisure Studies. Under her leadership, the School of Nursing enrolled the largest number of male nursing students in the country and launched the state’s only academic-practice mobile health unit, the Jag Mobile, named for the University’s mascot, the Jaguar. During her tenure, the School of Nursing was voted the No. 1 Nursing School in the United States by Nurse.org in 2024.
Dr. Brown’s vision for the College of Nursing and Allied Health is to establish it as a premier, internationally recognized Health Science Center, offering high-demand degree programs and leading transformative research in health disparities that impacts national and global health.
Recent Awards, Honors & Recognitions
Institutional and Leadership Recognitions
- Men of SUSON featured at the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus Luncheon — February 2025
- Men of SUSON featured at the Super Bowl Breakfast — Bart Starr Awards Ceremony, LIX Super Bowl Breakfast, New Orleans, Louisiana — February 2025
- Voted Best Nursing School in the U.S. by Nurse.org — 2024
- Ranked in the Top 10% as Best Undergraduate Nursing Program by U.S. News & World Report — 2025
- Ranked in the Top 10 Best Nursing Schools in Louisiana by Nurse.org — 2024
- Graduated the first seated nurse in the State of Louisiana — May 2024
- Named Best Nursing Program by HBCU Digest — 2015, 2017
- Member of the National Hartford Center for Gerontological Nursing Excellence — since 2017
- Nursing School/Program of the Year — Louisiana State Nurses Association — 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2021, 2023
- Ranked in the Top 15 HBCU Nursing Schools by Top RN to BSN — 2022
- Ranked #5 in the Top 10 Best HBCU Nursing Programs by Nurse.org — 2024
- Ranked in the Top 10 Best Value Nursing Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Louisiana by Nursing Degree Search— 2023
- Louisiana Nurses Foundation Nightingale Award: Nursing School of the Year, Graduate Degree Programs — 2021, 2023
- Nursing School of the Year – Graduate Degree Programs — Louisiana State Nurses Association — 2021
- Recipient, Nursing School Administrator of the Year — Louisiana State Nurses Association — 2021
- Appointed by Governor John Bel Edwards as Co-Chair of the COVID-19 Louisiana Health Equity Task Force
Fact Sheet
About the School of Nursing:
Established in 1986, the School of Nursing (SON) is nationally recognized for its innovation in nursing education and success in educating minority students from disadvantaged backgrounds
The SON has four-degree programs:
- Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)
- Generic BSN Program
- 100% Online RN to BSN
- Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) with a specialty in family health nursing
- Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) with a focus on leadership
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in nursing with a focus on research with vulnerable populations
The SON also houses:
- The Office of Nursing Research
- A state-of-the-art Simulation Based Learning Center and Skills Labs
- The Technology and Learning Resource Center
- The Nurse Managed Family Health Care Clinic (NMFHHC)-Women’s Infant Clinic (WIC)
- The “Jag Mobile” Mobile Health Unit, the only academic practice “clinic on wheels” in the state of Louisiana
About Our Students
SON has produced:
- Over 2,900 BSN graduates, and is nationally recognized for being one of the largest producer of African American nurses in the United States (Diverse Issues in Higher Education)
- 522 family nurse practitioners, accounting for nearly 50% of African American FNPs residing in the state of Louisiana
- 129 doctoral graduates (51 PhD graduates and 78 DNP graduates)
- PhD students receive national recognition through the prestigious National League for Nursing’s (NLN), Jonas Scholar program.
- MSN students and graduates have received the NP Student of the Year award, Edna Treutling NP Scholarship and NP Entrepreneur of the Year awarded by the Louisiana Association of Nurse Practitioners and the NP Advocate for the State of Louisiana by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).
- Recognized for having the largest number of African American male nursing students in the United States known as Men of SUSON.
About Our Faculty
- A cadre of our faculty hold national distinction through the NLN as Health Information Technology Scholars and Certified Nurse Educators. Faculty are also bestowed Fellow status in the American Academy of Nursing, the NLN Academy of Nursing Education, the National Gerontological Nursing Association, the Gerontological Society of America, and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.
- 100% of the faculty are members of professional nursing organizations
Honors and Recognition
- Voted Best Nursing School in the U.S. by Nurse.org for 2024
- Ranked in the Top 10 Best Nursing Schools in Louisiana by Nurse.org for 2024
- Ranked in the Top 10% as Best Undergraduate Nursing Program by U.S. News & World Report for 2025
- Named Best Nursing Program by the HBCU Digest in 2015 and 2017
- Member of National Hartford Center for Gerontological Nursing Excellence since 2017
- Nursing School/Program of the Year in 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2021, 2023 by the Louisiana State Nurses Association
- Ranked in Top 15 HBCU Nursing Schools for 2022 by Top RN to BSN
- Ranked #5 in the Top 10 Best HBCU Nursing Programs for 2024 by Nurse.org
- Ranked in Top 10 Best Value Nursing Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Louisiana for 2023 by Nursing Degree Search
“Jag Mobile” Mobile Health Unit
The “Jag Mobile” (named after the Southern University mascot, the jaguar), is a 38ft, 11-inch, “clinic on wheels.” This innovative “clinic on wheels” approach is designed to provide health outreach services to medically underserved, disadvantaged, hard to reach populations located in inner-city and rural communities within a 50-mile radius of the School of Nursing. The wheelchair accessible mobile health clinic is fully equipped with two examination rooms designed to accommodate children, women and adult populations. As an additional feature, each examination room is outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment to allow for telehealth visits. The Jag Mobile also houses a centralized patient intake area, sinks with eye wash features, cabinets to store equipment and medical supplies, lab-draw station, two refrigerators, and a lavatory. Safety features include a back-up camera and a security system.
As a clinical facility site for nursing students, both undergraduate and graduate nursing students utilize the mobile clinic to meet clinical learning objectives in conjunction with the School of Nursing’s curriculum.
In partnership with Ochsner Health System, the overarching objectives for the Jag Mobile are as follows:
- To provide access to culturally sensitive health promotion and disease prevention services to vulnerable, medically underserved populations,
- To establish collaborative, interdisciplinary partnerships within the College of Nursing and Allied Health to address the identified health promotion and disease prevention needs of the populations served,
- To provide health teaching and screening for early detection of underlying medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes that increase the risk for serious illness from COVID-19 in vulnerable, medically underserved populations residing in inner-city and rural communities, and
- To increase the number of health care providers who possess the necessary skills to effectively meet the diverse health care needs of vulnerable populations.
