Randolph F R Rasch PhD, MSN, RN, FNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN, FADLN
Dr. Rasch has an exemplary history of public service, working with underserved and minority populations, as a public health nurse (PHN), in inner-city Benton Harbor, Michigan, and as a pioneer in correctional health care. He served in a variety of positions in the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC). As the first State-wide Director of Nursing Services/Programs Director in the TDOC, he provided leadership and direction for nursing services, assisting the Director of Health Services (a FNP!) with the overall development, management, and operation of TDOC Health Services. As part of a three-member management team, he was responsible for designing and implementing a system of health care for the TDOC. Dr. Rasch has over thirty years of experience teaching in BSN, MSN, DNP and PhD programs in nursing, serving in roles as a department chair, and director of nurse practitioner programs schools of nursing in The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Vanderbilt University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. By governor appointments, he has served in committees and task forces in the States of Tennessee and Michigan, including, among others, the Michigan Coronavirus-19 Racial Disparities Task Force, chairing the Primary Care Connections Workgroup of the Task Force and an inaugural member of the Tennessee Early Comprehensive Systems Advisory Committee of the Tennessee Department of Health. A Fellow in the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (FAANP), the National Academies of Practice (FNAP), the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) and the Academy of Diversity Leaders in Nursing (FADLN), Dr. Rasch holds the distinction of being the first African American male NP (a graduate of the FNP program at Vanderbilt School of Nursing), the first African American male public health nurse in the State of Michigan and the first African American male to hold the PhD in nursing (University of Texas at Austin).