LAS VEGAS - June 5, 2009 - UNLV School of Nursing dean Carolyn Yucha was named a Healthcare Hero for 2009 by the Nevada Business Journal.

Yucha, who won the award in the educator category, was one of 10 health professionals from Southern Nevada honored by the publication in categories ranging from educator, administrator and care provider to innovator, humanitarian and entrepreneur. Yucha will receive the award during a recognition ceremony July 29.

Since taking over as dean of the UNLV School of Nursing in 2004, Yucha has overseen tremendous advancements in the school's research and academic missions. During her tenure, the school has streamlined its curriculum and extended its calendar to accommodate more students, enabling them to enter the workforce faster. Additionally, she introduced a Ph.D. program in nursing education, strengthening the school's focus on student and faculty research. In 2008, she assumed the added role as dean of the UNLV School of Allied Health Sciences, where she oversees such programs as kinesiology, nutrition, health physics and physical therapy.

Yucha is also an accomplished researcher, earning funding from the National Institutes of Health and other agencies to study the use of biofeedback assisted relaxation as a means to treat hypertension. She recently completed a funded study to measure the physiological responses to gambling in women and is now exploring ways to reduce stress in nursing students. Yucha is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and current editor of the scientific journal Biological Research for Nursing.

This is the fourth year the Nevada Business Journal has honored Healthcare Heroes in Northern and Southern Nevada. Honorees are peer-nominated and selected by a group of healthcare leaders in each region of the state.

Yucha is the third UNLV nursing professor in as many years to be named a Healthcare Hero, following Rosemary Witt in 2007 and Lori Candela in 2008.