After a remarkable career spanning more than three decades, Professor Emerita Jane Dimmitt Champion, PhD, DNP, MSN, MA, FNP, AH-PMH-CNS, FAAN, FAANP, retired from the School of Nursing in 2025 after 13 years of service, leaving behind an indelible legacy of excellence in teaching, research, clinical practice and global mentorship.
A true master teacher, Champion is known for fostering rigorous, respectful learning environments that inspired generations of nurses and nurse scholars. Her teaching portfolio spans undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels across multiple modalities—face-to-face, hybrid and online.
Launching nursing programs globally
Throughout her career, Champion was recognized for teaching innovation and program development, having played a central role in establishing doctoral education programs both in the U.S. and internationally.
In Mexico, she collaborated with Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León to develop the country’s first doctoral program in nursing, mentoring hundreds of students over two decades. She received an honorary professorship in recognition of her contributions.
In Vietnam, she partnered with Friendship Bridge Nurses and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City to help establish both bachelor’s and master’s programs in nursing. Her work emphasized integrating nursing research into academic programs, helping to elevate nursing as a scientific discipline in the region. She also received an honorary professorship there, reflecting nearly 20 years of dedicated collaboration.
A strong advocate for global learning, Champion helped develop and lead multiple study abroad programs at UT Austin, including the School of Nursing’s undergraduate and graduate-level programs in Costa Rica that focused on primary care and mental health. She also led a University-wide study abroad experience in Sydney, Australia, where students examined the socio-cultural influences on health care and visited remote clinics with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Through these programs, she helped cultivate a global perspective in future nurses and nurse practitioners, emphasizing the importance of culturally responsive care.
DNP leadership
One of Champion’s most impactful contributions at the School of Nursing was the development of the School of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program in 2015. As its founding director, she oversaw its launch and growth, guiding it from concept to one of the School’s cornerstone programs.
“I was the first faculty member with a DNP at UT Austin,” Champion recalled. “Now, many of our current DNP faculty were once students in the program I helped build.”
Under her leadership, the program emphasized rigorous scholarly projects and fostered a strong culture of publication and presentation. By the time she passed the baton two years ago, students had collectively published over 40 scholarly manuscripts and presented widely at approximately 100 state and national conferences.
“That was probably the most exciting thing I did—the hardest was letting it go,” she said.
Champion is a co-founder of Texas DNP, a statewide organization committed to advancing the impact of DNP-prepared nurses. As past and current president, as well as Board Member, she helped shape the organization’s mission to promote leadership, scholarship and policy engagement across Texas.
Recognized for research
In research, Champion is internationally recognized for her contributions to women’s and adolescent health, especially among underserved, ethnic minority populations. Her work, centered on sexual health, substance use, interpersonal violence and unintended pregnancy, has informed public health practice and policy across the globe. Over the course of her career, she served as principal or co-investigator on more than 35 federally funded research projects, including 26 grants supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Her research began with exploratory studies on sexual health behaviors, eventually evolving into the design and implementation of comprehensive, multilevel interventions aimed at risk reduction and health promotion. One of her most influential projects, Project Image, has been recognized nationally for its effectiveness in promoting healthy sexual behaviors among ethnic minority adolescent women. It was included in both the Centers for Disease Control’s Compendium of Evidence-Based HIV Behavioral Interventions and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ list of effective adolescent health interventions in 2014.
Her work has garnered wide dissemination through more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and over 400 professional presentations around the world.
For her significant contributions to nursing science and minority health research, Champion has earned numerous accolades, including her induction into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame in 2018, the Southern Nursing Research Society Award for Research in Minority Health in 2015, and fellowships in both the American Academy of Nursing and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.
In addition, she has been honored with numerous accolades that underscore her leadership in research, education and mentorship. She received the Billye J. Brown Award for Excellence in Leadership from the Epsilon Theta Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International and the Lucie S. Kelly Mentor Award. She was appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, and she has held the prestigious Lee and Joseph D. Jamail Endowed Professorship at the School of Nursing since 2015.
As part of The American Nurse Project by Carolyn Jones—a series highlighting stories from more than 100 nurses across diverse specialties—Champion was featured in the segment “Giving Strength to Women in Rural Areas” in 2013. In her interview, she discussed the unique challenges faced by women in rural communities and how nurses play a vital role in empowering them through access to health care, education and community-based support.
Rural health advocacy
Champion’s academic accomplishments were deeply rooted in her practice. Growing up in rural Southwest Texas, she developed a strong passion for improving health care access in underserved areas.
“Rural health has always been a priority for me,” she said. “That was initially what drew me into nursing. Nurse practitioners can play—and do play—a vital role in the provision of health care in these areas.”
That early experience influenced both her clinical practice and academic focus. She has long advocated the role of nurse practitioners in meeting primary care needs in rural communities, both as practitioners and through the policies that enable them to serve effectively.
For more than 35 years, she maintained a rural primary care practice in Uvalde, Texas, where she continues to practice today. There, she integrated research, service and culturally responsive care—demonstrating what it means to be a clinician-scholar. Her bilingual and bicultural background, combined with advanced certifications as a family nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist in both adult and psychiatric/mental health nursing, uniquely positioned her to serve and advocate for vulnerable populations.
Her interventions, developed and tested in these community-based settings, were translated and implemented internationally, from Mexico and Chile to the United Kingdom. Her work has directly shaped evidence-based, patient-centered models of care for individuals affected by STI/HIV, intimate partner violence and substance use disorders.
Upon retirement, Champion leaves a legacy of inspired learners, international collaboration and a deep, lasting impact on health and humanity.