Dorothy Carolina, Ph.D., M.S.N., R.N.

Clinical Assistant Professor and Director for the Nursing Administration and Executive Nurse Leadership Program
College of Nursing

Dr. Dorothy Smith Carolina is an Assistant Clinical Professor and Director for the Nursing Administration and Executive Nurse Leadership Program at the College of Nursing. Dr. Carolina teaches in the undergraduate department, where she shares her knowledge and expertise in nursing leadership and community health. In addition to her teaching load, Dr. Carolina serves as the chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, faculty adviser to the Beta chapter of Chi Eta Phi (Tau Chi Chapter) Sorority and faculty mentor to students in Martin Luther King Scholars program. Dr. Carolina earned the Daisy Award, which is given annually to a faculty member nominated by the student body for teaching excellence.

As a nursing professional with over three decades of experience in clinical practice, administration, and education, Dr. Carolina has held various positions in both public and private sectors. Carolina served as the Executive Director of the NJ Board of Nursing, where she oversaw the regulatory practice of over 200,000 Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, and Certified Home Health Aides, the accreditation of nursing education programs, as well as other activities that were established to protect the public. Her professional recognition and honors include being named an Institute for Nursing Diva, as a Kirby Doctoral Fellow, and the Concerned Black Nurses of Newark, Nurse Researcher of the Year. Rutgers University awarded Dr. Carolina a Ph.D. in nursing, where she was only the second Black nurse to receive the degree since the program’s inception some 20 years prior.

Dr. Carolina received an M.S. in Adult Primary Care Health at Columbia University School of Nursing, a B.S.N. from Seton Hall College of Nursing, and a diploma in nursing from Mountainside Hospital School of Nursing.