CHHS Leadership

Dean Kirsten N. Corazzini

Kirsten N. Corazzini, PhD, FGSA, is Dean and Professor, College of Health and Human Services, University of New Hampshire (UNH). In addition to leading the College, Dr. Corazzini provides leadership for the University System of New Hampshire’s role as a Workforce HUB operating within the statewide Rural Health Transformation framework overseen by GO‑NORTH. Through the Hub, she leads efforts to develop and scale innovative approaches to healthcare workforce preparation, simulation and technology-enabled clinical education, and cross-sector partnerships designed to strengthen the state’s rural healthcare workforce and infrastructure.

Dr. Corazzini joined UNH in 2022 after serving as Associate Dean and Professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Prior to serving in academic administration, she was a faculty member at Duke University for 19 years, where she held a variety of faculty leadership positions, including service on the executive committee of the Academic Council. She is a HERS Fellow and was recently named a 2027 National Association of Higher Education Systems Executive Fellow, an executive and systems-level leadership development program.

Dr. Corazzini earned her AB in experimental psychology from Bryn Mawr College and her PhD in Social Gerontology from the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her research focuses on improving care outcomes for chronically ill older adults in residential long-term care settings, with particular emphasis on person-centered care. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer’s Association, the John A. Hartford Foundation, and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.

Dr. Corazzini was awarded a Fulbright-Schuman Fellowship in 2015 for her cross-national comparative research on nursing home care in the European Union. In recognition of her contributions to the field of gerontology, she was named a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America in 2012 and served as Chair of the Health Sciences Section of the Gerontological Society of America in 2023.