DETROIT -- Fredericka Shea of Detroit has been named interim dean of the College of Nursing at Wayne State University.

An associate professor of family, community and mental health nursing and co-director of the AIDS Research and Education Program at WSU, Shea joined the nursing faculty in 1967 as assistant professor.

She has bachelor's and master's degrees from Boston University and a doctorate from the University of Michigan. Additionally, she holds a health systems management certificate from Harvard University, is a registered nurse in Michigan and a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

Shea is a former director of the Center for Health Research in WSU's College of Nursing and a 1993 recipient of the prestigious Academic Achievement Award from the Probus Club of Detroit. She co-chaired the Women and AIDS Statewide Committee in Michigan and is a member of the Michigan Nurses Association HIV Task Force. She has written and spoken widely on HIV/AIDS research, prevention and care.

She says she is "excited and thrilled about this opportunity to serve the college and the university."

Prior to joining the WSU faculty, Shea was a staff nurse at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Mass., and a nurse volunteer with the Peace Corps in Togo for two years. She is a member of the American Academy of Nursing and the American, Michigan and Detroit Nursing Associations as well as the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care.

Shea succeeds Marilyn Oberst, who is resuming faculty duties in the college.