Yenna Salamonson

Nurse | Academic, Head of School (Nursing) | Researcher in Nursing, Health & Higher Education | University of Wollongong | Australia

Yenna is the Head of School of Nursing since June 2022. She is named by Elsevier to be among the World's top 2% scientists in 2021 in both career and single year (2020).

Over the decades of her nursing career at Western, she is recognised for her outstanding student feedback on teaching and received several teaching awards. She was a Winner of the Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award for Teaching, as well as a national Australian Learning and Teaching Council citation award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. She has also been involved in curriculum development and innovations, particularly in the undergraduate nursing program, championing the introduction of online and web-based learning delivery in the nursing School.

She also brings to her role a strength in education and workforce scholarship. Yenna has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications, collaborating with other academics, both at national and international levels. She has a strong track record in training and mentoring research students. Currently supervising over 10 research students, she was instrumental in supporting the completion of 27 students in their research degrees.

Beyond the university, she has also engaged in research collaborations with industry partners. She was the University research representative on the South Western Sydney Local Health District Multicultural Committee, the local health district with the highest settlement of people of refugee backgrounds.

Yenna and completed her nursing training at the Repatriation General Hospital in Sydney, Australia. She is a graduate of Macquarie University where she earned a BSc in biological science and MA in Education & Work. In 2002, she graduated with a PhD from the Western Sydney University.