President August 11, 2026
University of Utah honors the life of Linda Amos Nurse, dean and health sciences leader remembered as a champion for women in higher education
University of Utah Communications -
The University of Utah mourns the loss of Linda Amos, longtime College of Nursing dean, associate vice president for Health Sciences and advocate for women in higher education.
Amos, 85, died Aug. 9 at her home in Texas.
While she served a 20-year term as dean and expanded the reach of the Health Sciences campus, over the course of her life in Utah, Amos also became nationally recognized as a leader in nursing education.
“Linda Amos was the trailblazing leader we needed at just the right time,” said Bob Carter, CEO of U of U Health and executive vice president for the Health Sciences. “She helped propel University of Utah medical education forward, while passionately advocating for her students, patients and their families.”
Raised on a farm in Van Buren, Ohio, Amos studied nursing at Ohio State, receiving her bachelor’s degree in 1962 and a master’s degree in medical-surgical nursing two years later. After graduation, Amos first worked in an emergency department and at a tuberculosis hospital in Ohio, then at the University of New Mexico and, for a time, at the Bernalillo County Indian Hospital.
Ultimately determined to teach other nurses, she moved back east in search of an advanced degree. In 1977, Amos earned her doctorate at Boston University in systems development and adaptations and was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN). Appointed dean of the school in 1974, Amos served six years before U President Chase Peterson, then-University of Utah vice president for Health Sciences, persuaded her to move west again.
“I thought the students were very eager to learn. They were very busy, and they seemed very motivated, excited about what they were doing. And they had a good learning environment,” Amos said in an oral history from Marriott Library collections.
“I was really attracted to the fact that it was a health sciences center. It was a nursing program physically located in the health sciences. So many times, and at a lot of universities, you would find the nursing program was off with the liberal arts and other areas, but not affiliated and close to medicine and the other health-related professions.”
University of Utah Health Sciences Council, 1986.
She took the helm at a struggling operation. The college had just $45,000 for scholarships and other initiatives, faculty research was moribund, and specialty options for nurses wanting to pursue advanced degrees were limited. Amos developed new graduate specialty programs in neonatal care, women’s health, geriatrics, occupational health and nursing informatics. The new dean also established a Gerontology Center, a distance learning program for students in rural communities, and a Women’s Health and Birthing Services Program.
Appointed an associate vice president in 1998, Amos was in charge of information technology and emergency preparedness, coordinating interdisciplinary work among the Health Sciences colleges, and managing building projects. She oversaw an expansion at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, the construction of the Health Sciences Education Building and healthcare centers in Research Park. She also was the founding chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. The Utah Women in Higher Education Network (UWHEN) award is named after her.
“Linda Amos transformed what was possible for nursing at the University of Utah and across the nation,” said College of Nursing Dean Marla De Jong. “Through visionary leadership, unwavering advocacy, and an unshakable belief in the power of education, she elevated the College of Nursing, advanced the nursing profession, and opened doors for generations of nurses and women leaders who followed.”
University of Utah College of Nursing Dean Linda Amos, 1990s.
While at Utah, Amos served two years as president of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), from 1984 to 1986. From 1998 to 2001, Amos chaired the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), developing accreditation standards for baccalaureate and graduate nursing education that were implemented two years later by the U.S. Department of Education—the first significant change in nursing accreditation in 70 years. Two years later, Amos received AACN’s Sister Bernadette Armiger Award, which recognizes a nursing leader who has advanced nursing education and the profession.
“Her legacy endures in the institutions she strengthened, the standards she helped shape, and the countless lives improved through her work,” De Jong added.
In 2000, Amos retired as dean. At the end of her deanship, the college ranked 25th among U.S. nursing schools for National Institutes of Health research funding. The school’s development fund had grown to $2.5 million. Amos’ fundraising had generated another $7.5 million for the college. She continued to serve as an associate vice president for five more years, finally retiring in 2005.
An avid watercolor painter and angler, she never skied, but liked to sit by the fire at Stein Eriksen Lodge.
When the college celebrated its 75th Anniversary in 2019, Amos reminisced: “I was always proud of the faculty and students for all of their achievements and care for the patients they served,” she said. “The years were full of growth and challenges, but always with lots of energy and enthusiasm. We worked hard, had fun and made a big difference in the lives of many patients and students.”
