Dean Receives Award as a Top Woman in Business
The Hartford Business Journal honored Dean Cesarina Thompson this month as one of the Top 25 Women in Business for 2023 at a dinner and award presentation with fellow recipients.
In being selected for the HBJ honor, Thompson was among business directors, fellow higher education leaders, doctors, real estate executives, and company founders. Thompson attended the dinner at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville, with family and colleagues joining her to celebrate.
“I was humbled by the nomination and honored to be recognized among such an amazing group of women leaders,” she says.
The Top 25 Women in Business list recognizes those making a significant difference in industries and organizations that range from accounting and banking, to the legal sector, to nonprofits.
Thompson has been dean of the University of Hartford’s College of Education, Nursing and Health Professions since 2018, leading the college through a time of great expansion with new learning space in the Hursey Center and the addition of a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing (BSN) undergraduate major.
Under her guidance, ENHP has also launched a doctor of nursing practice graduate degree, exercise science and occupational therapy programs, and certificate and residency programs in advanced orthopedic physical therapy. The undergraduate nursing major has shown rapid growth and is the largest major of new students across UHart for this academic year.
Clinical rotations accompany many of those degrees, which has meant forging new partnerships with facilities across the state and expanding existing ties.
As HBJ’s publisher and editor invited Thompson to the stage, they announced her next big goal is to further diversify education and health care workers so that workforces are more representative of the people they’re serving and to recruit those who are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.
The dean also said she believes the keys to success include taking calculated risks, being persistent, and remaining eager to learn.
Additionally, Thompson was honored this month with the Beverly Koerner Outstanding Alumni Award for Education in Nursing by the University of Connecticut School of Nursing and was a speaker at the school’s commencement ceremony.