Robert Rosseter

Robert Rosseter, MBA, MS, is committed to telling nursing’s story, expanding the profession’s influence, and garnering support for a more highly educated nursing workforce. For more than two decades, he has served as the Chief Communications Officer for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), where he has worked tirelessly to shape the national dialogue on nursing education and build new connections to advance the nursing profession.

Through his work to lead with evidence and drive change, Mr. Rosseter has helped to raise awareness about the link between nursing education and quality care. The issue brief he developed on the Impact of Education on Nursing Practice synthesized the work of leading nurse researchers to highlight the connection between higher levels of education and lower mortality rates, fewer medication errors, decreased costs, and better patient outcomes. Much of this work was incorporated into the Institute of Medicine’s (now National Academy of Medicine) 2010 Future of Nursing report, which helped practice leaders understand the benefits of a better educated nursing workforce. Further, he has worked to strengthen the bridge between ADN and BSN programs as the staff lead on the Academic Progression in Nursing Task Force and as the creator of a joint statement on the importance of advancing nursing education, which was endorsed by community college leaders.

Mr. Rosseter has played a critical role in shaping AACN’s landmark documents over the past 20 years, including the RAND report on The DNP by 2015; Advancing Healthcare Transformation: A New Era for Academic Nursing; and most recently The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education. In addition to co-authoring more than two dozen articles for leading nursing journals, he has written extensively on the need for elevating the nurse faculty role, supporting PhD nursing education, differentiating nursing’s terminal degrees, and providing more federal support for schools of nursing.

Mr. Rosseter seeks out new opportunities to benefit the profession and establish strategic partnerships. To support the pipeline into nursing, he led the work to launch nursing’s first centralized application service (NursingCAS) and the formation of the Graduate Nursing Student Academy, which now serves more than 10,000 master’s and doctoral students. He was instrumental in linking AACN with the Jonas Philanthropies, which resulted in more than a decade of collaboration and over $10 million in support for doctoral-prepared faculty, researchers, and leaders.

Mr. Rosseter is particularly adept at brokering partnerships with corporate entities. Under his direction, the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) - AACN Minority Faculty Scholarship was launched, which provided more than $1.1 million in support for future faculty. Most recently, he secured $600,000 in support from J&J to launch initiatives focused on transitioning to competency-based education, building a culture of belonging in nursing, and developing teaching resources focused on innovation and moral courage.

Mr. Rosseter holds an MBA and MS from the University of Maryland and a BA from George Washington University.