Assistant Professor, Clinical Nursing
Director, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner program
School of Nursing
Dr. Donna Rolin is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing and the Director of the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner program at the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing. She received her PhD in Nursing Research from New York University, MSN in Psychiatric Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, and BSN from Wichita State University. From 2008-2009, during her PhD education at New York University, she completed the Substance Abuse Research Education and Training (SARET) Fellowship supported by the National Institute of Drug Abuse R25 Grant. This included a Residency at New York University School of Medicine Behavioral Science and Substance Abuse Research Group and the Bellevue Hospital Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA) awarded her a scholarship in 2010. Her 2012 dissertation at New York University was a qualitative, phenomenological exploration of “The Lived Experience of Spirituality in Alcoholism Recovery.”
Her research focuses on community psychiatry and substance use disorders. She is active in the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, where she serves on the national Board of Directors in the role of Treasurer, and locally in the Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nurses of Austin organization.
Her clinical background, as a Psychiatric Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, encompasses cognitive behavioral, group, and family psychotherapies as well as psychiatric evaluation and pharmacotherapy for persons with mental illness and cognitive disorders in inpatient, outpatient, community and forensic settings. Currently, she practices in a community-based group working with underserved patients with serious mental illnesses, cognitive disorders, and intellectual disabilities in outpatient, long term care, and inpatient psychiatric facilities.
Dr. Rolin’s recent national and regional professional conference presentations focus on topics such as psychotropic medications in the elderly, psychopharmacology in primary care, and promotion of psychotherapy in advanced practice nursing. She and colleagues recently launched a wellness intervention research study aimed to improve mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, disability, sleep, emotional eating, and wellness.