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UT Tyler Nursing Doctoral Student Remembered

November 15, 2011

Dr. Barbara Haas, nursing doctoral program director, presents the doctorate hood to Thompson during the hooding ceremony. 

The UT Tyler College of Nursing and Health Sciences officials remember doctoral nursing student Dr. Sharon Thompson of Crossville, Tenn., who died Nov. 11.

“We are deeply saddened by her death. Sharon was an exceptional student and held in very high regard not only by the faculty and classmates here but also by her students and the faculty that she worked with in Tennessee,” said Dr. Susan Yarbrough, associate dean for graduate nursing programs. 

Officials held a hooding ceremony earlier this semester for Thompson when they learned of her sudden diagnosis with stage IV pancreatic cancer. UT Tyler doctoral nursing faculty flew to Thompson’s home in Tennessee to grant her degree, and UT Tyler faculty and classmates are continuing her research. She was scheduled to complete the doctorate program in May.

Her family also will be recognized at UT Tyler during spring 2012 commencement ceremonies.

A faculty member at Tennessee Tech University’s Whitson-Hester School of Nursing, Thompson served 10 years with the U.S. Air Force as a nurse and was stationed in Iraq from July to November 2003.