4
COM Outlook . Winter 2015
Dr. Rosebud
Foster, who served
as special assistant
to my office and as
deputy director of
the College of Os-
teopathic Medicine’s
AHEC Program, was
a uniquely skilled
and intellectually
brilliant woman of
incredible human-
ity and personal capabilities. She also played a major role in the
construct of NSU’s Health Professions Division.
I first met Dr. Foster, who passed away on July 20, in the early
1980s during a time when she was serving as the pioneer academi-
cian and administrative leader charged with establishing a series of
programs at Florida International University in Miami, including its
nursing program. I happened to be working in public service as a
member of the Florida House of Representatives at the time, and
she came to me because my jurisdiction was health issues.
Working with my legislative colleagues, we supported the
establishment of a nursing program at FIU. Several years later, Dr.
Foster and I got to know each other better when I came to work
at Southeastern University of the Health Sciences. At the time,
Dr. Foster was serving as a consultant in our AHEC Program
relative to her previous service as a nurse professional and FIU
educator and administrator.
Although she remained a full-time FIU administrator, the uni-
versity’s leadership allowed her to spend a portion of her work-
week with us in the AHEC Program to address the needs of rural
and underserved areas of interest to the Florida Legislature. In the
late 1990s, when I became executive vice chancellor and provost
of NSU’s Health Professions Division, I asked Dr. Foster to join us
full-time as she was already contemplating her retirement from FIU.
In 2001, this became a reality, with Dr. Foster serving as an aca-
demic and informational diplomat for the Health Professions Division
due to the national recognition she had achieved as an individual
who understood health care disparities that existed in minority and
underserved areas. Throughout her distinguished career, she sat on
a number of presidential commissions and served as a respected
information source for the executive offices of various Florida gover-
nors because they trusted her wealth of knowledge, which was not
anecdotal. It was always supported with well-documented facts as
well as a lifetime of experience in dealing with the delivery of—and
addressing the disparities that existed within—health care.
Dr. Foster was a multifaceted individual who worked closely
with Dr. Steven Zucker and others on our hugely successful
tobacco cessation initiatives. She also taught in our Master of
Public Health Program from its inception and served as a pillar of
strength to coordinate, along with Dr. Cyril Blavo, the ascension
of the program to the esteemed and accredited entity it is today.
Additionally, she served as my office’s special assistant in acting as
the chairperson for the pro-forma committee that was established
to provide information relative to the viability of creating a nursing
program at the Health Professions Division.
Because of her well-regarded reputation with the nursing
profession and other health care professionals, she assembled a
wonderful team of individuals that provided us with fact-based
information related to the marketplace conditions and the resul-
tant needs of the nursing professional community in the state of
Florida. The efforts of Dr. Foster and her pro- forma committee
would soon lead to the successful creation of our nursing program,
which would eventually evolve into the College of Nursing.
Dr. Foster was an incredibly valuable asset to the Health Profes-
sions Division and my office. She will be sorely missed not only
personally to me as a person who always displayed her kindness,
guidance, and abilities, but by the individuals who received the
advice and advocacy of a very competent health care professional
and thoughtful human being.
HPD
Chancellor’s
Communiqué
Frederick Lippman, R.Ph., Ed.D.
Dr. Rosebud Foster...Remembering a Kind, Competent Colleague
