The University of Texas at Austin has appointed Dr. Kavita Radhakrishnan, an Indian American pioneer in digital health and nursing technology, as the interim dean of its School of Nursing.
Radhakrishnan, who has been a staple of the UT Austin faculty since 2012, steps into the role with a background that is as much about electrical engineering as it is about clinical care.
Her journey to the deanship of a premier American nursing school began thousands of miles away in Mumbai, India, where she first trained as an engineer. Born and raised in India, Radhakrishnan earned her Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering from the University of Mumbai. Her initial path was purely technical, leading her to the United States to pursue a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington.
However, a pivotal moment occurred while she was living in Boston. While searching for engineering opportunities, she began volunteering at a local hospital. It was there that she observed the “practical, analytical, problem-solving-driven work” of nurses, as she described in a university profile.
She noticed a gap between the potential of technology and the daily frustrations of clinical staff.
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This realization prompted a radical career shift: she decided she could only build better tools for nurses if she became one herself. She went on to earn both her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a PhD in Nursing Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, followed by post-doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania.
A Vision for Digital Health Radhakrishnan’s research has long focused on “aging in place,” utilizing telemonitoring and digital gaming to help patients manage chronic conditions like heart failure and hypertension from their own homes. “I believe technology, when thoughtfully and ethically applied, can help make [aging in place] a reality for more people,” Radhakrishnan stated.
Her work has garnered over $6.8 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Notably, she has designed culturally tailored digital game interventions to assist South Asian Indian Americans with advance care planning, addressing specific health disparities within her own community.
Before this appointment, Radhakrishnan served as the associate dean for research and director of the Luci Baines Johnson and Ian J. Turpin Center for Gerontological Nursing. In 2025, she reached a career milestone with her induction into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.
As she takes the helm as interim dean, she plans to lean into the school’s collaborative environment. “I am humbled to serve as interim dean,” Radhakrishnan said. “I look forward to meeting with many of my colleagues, listening to their ideas and learning from the expertise across this remarkable community.”