BROOKINGS – South Dakota State University Clinical Associate Professor Robin Arends has been elected to a three-year term to the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board (AANPCB). She will start that role in January.

“I am excited about the opportunity to serve on this board to ensure that high testing standards are incorporated into all facets of the certification process. This process is important to the profession as it certifies applicants meet the competency and knowledge standards needed to deliver high quality evidence-based care. Through my role as a nurse practitioner educator, as well as a practicing provider, I see the importance of this position,” Arends said.

Arends participated in the 2014 American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s second annual Faculty Policy Intensive and was named to the AANP Leadership Program that year. In addition, she was inducted into the Fellows of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners in June 2017. She has two degrees from SDSU, a master’s degree in 2008 with a family nurse practitioner specialization and a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree in 2014.

“We could not be more proud of Dr. Arends’ accomplishments. She has built a level of expertise that will serve this board, and the SDSU College of Nursing, well into the future,” said Mary Anne Krogh ’85/’11 Ph.D., the college’s dean.

Arends teaches FNP students at the master’s and doctoral levels and serves as the APRN curriculum coordinator and APRN specialty coordinator. In her clinical practice, Arends provides comprehensive acute and chronic care through telehealth modalities to long-term care residents.

Her passion for nurse practitioner-delivered health care utilizing telehealth led her to receive a $1.2 million grant to educate students and clinicians on telehealth from the Health Resources and Services Administration. In addition, she has served as the SDSU graduate APRN coordinator on a $3.75 million grant from HRSA in the area of geriatrics and a $546,971 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in the area of Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment. Arends is a national and international speaker in the areas of research, education, policy and practice. Arends has served as an item writer and item reviewer for AANPCB and is currently serving on the FNP Practice Analysis Taskforce.

The AANPCB is an independent, nonprofit certifying body whose purpose is to provide a valid and reliable program for the evaluation of individuals wishing to enter, continue and/or advance in the nurse practitioner profession through the certification process.