After nearly seven years leading one of the College of Nursing's most significant community health and workforce development initiatives, Professor Gwen Latendresse, PhD, CNM, FAAN, FACNM, is passing the torch of a program she helped build into a model for expanding primary care access across Utah. Latendresse, who serves as the project director of the Advanced Nursing Education Workforce (ANEW) program, will retire June 30, 2026. Professor (Clinical) Jennifer Clifton, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, CCHP-CP, CCHP-A, FAANP, will assume the project director role effective July 1, 2026, taking over an initiative that has unfolded across two consecutive Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funded projects and grown to support approximately 20 Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students annually.
Latendresse secured the ANEW program for the College of Nursing (CON), building on a career that has moved fluidly between the bedside and the research lab. A certified nurse-midwife who returned to academia and completed her PhD in 2008, she has also built a research portfolio focused on adverse pregnancy outcomes, chronic maternal stress, and perinatal depression, including leading an active NIH-funded R01 study on web-based depression prevention in perinatal care. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the American College of Nurse-Midwives, and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Elevating Leaders in Academic Nursing program. "When we started the ANEW program, the goal was simple: get more nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives into the communities that need them most and make sure they could afford to get there," Latendresse said. "Watching this work grow over two grants, and seeing it take shape in community clinics serving people who truly need it, that is something I am incredibly proud of."
Clifton serves as the College of Nursing’s Associate Dean for Practice and Community Collaboration (PACC), overseeing clinical practices encompassing seven health care specialties across the Salt Lake Valley and statewide. That portfolio includes 34 College of Nursing advanced practice registered nurses, registered nurses, and medical assistants who care for patients, precept nursing students and medical residents, and collaborate with community partners. Clifton has also worked alongside Latendresse to develop, operationalize, and evaluate the ANEW program. She steps into the program director role with a clear sense of what the program means to the communities it serves. "The ANEW program reflects exactly what the College of Nursing stands for: preparing exceptional clinicians and getting them to the people and places that need them most. Gwen built a strong foundation, and I am committed to making sure this work continues to grow and make a difference.”
Funded by HRSA with grant support from July 2019 through June 2027, the ANEW program exists to increase the number of primary care nurse practitioners and certified nurse-midwives trained to provide primary care, and mental health and substance use disorder care. Through the grant, the team supports stipends and tuition for trainees, builds academic and clinical partnerships to expand training opportunities, and develops and sustains the clinical faculty and preceptors who make that training possible.
The first four-year HRSA project focused on recruiting and enrolling registered nurses into the CON’s DNP program who were already living in rural Utah. Reducing barriers of cost and relocation for DNP education resulted in a pipeline of graduates prepared and positioned to practice in the rural settings where they were needed most.
The second four-year project expanded the focus to include urban underserved populations, added psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner students, and introduced student-run clinics as an enhanced training pathway. Existing for over 50 years, student-run clinics are managed and operated by medical, nursing, and allied health students, who provide care to patients under the direct supervision of licensed professionals. These clinics are known to increase access to high-quality health care, often in populations with little or no resources. Through HRSA funding, the CON joined the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the Rose Park Primary Care Clinic and the Midvale Community Building Community Clinics, embedding CON nurse practitioner students and faculty preceptors. Expanding these clinics also addresses a practical challenge for the College by ensuring quality clinical education opportunities for primary care DNP students. The approach reflects the kind of integrated, mission-aligned model PACC is driven to achieve: community-focused, evidence-based care where it's needed most, while better preparing future nurse practitioners.
Students receive up to $22,750 per year in stipends for up to two years, with tuition reductions also available. Over a full traineeship, that support can approach $80,000 or more, with at least 75 percent of all grant funds flowing directly to students. To be eligible, students must be admitted to the College of Nursing’s DNP program and be actively pursuing one of five specialties—family primary care, nurse-midwifery, women’s health, pediatrics primary care, or psychiatric/mental health.
With one year remaining on the second four-year grant, the program's focus is sustainability. The College of Nursing has committed funding to support preceptor positions for at least two years following the conclusion of federal support. The team is also monitoring a potential HRSA workforce grant opportunity anticipated this fall.
For more information about the ANEW program or application, contact Program Manager Somer Aly at somer.aly@nurs.utah.edu or 801-585-7786.