The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) recently appointed Nickolas Zaller, PhD, and Tracie Seidl, MPA, as associate deans in the UAMS College of Nursing.
Zaller, an internationally known addiction researcher, was hired as the College of Nursing’s associate dean for research. The appointment marks his return to UAMS after serving from 2024-25 as senior director for research and evaluation at the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, a national organization that supports hospital-based violence intervention programs.
Zaller’s previous stint at UAMS began in 2014 when he was hired as an associate professor in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. In the ensuing decade, he went on to serve in a variety of roles at the university, including as director of the UAMS Office of Global Health; as co-director of the College of Public Health’s Rural and Global Public Health Program; and as founding director of the college’s Southern Public Health Criminal Justice Research Center.
Zaller earned his bachelor’s degree in microbiology and East Asian Studies from the University of Kansas in 1999. He lived in China for a year as a Fulbright Scholar before completing a doctorate in public health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2004.
He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in substance use, HIV and related infections at The Miriam Hospital, a teaching hospital of the Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Zaller later was appointed to the faculty at the Center for AIDS Research at Brown University, where he served until he came to UAMS.
Seidl, a UAMS employee for more than 20 years, was named as the College of Nursing’s associate dean for finance and administration. Her experience is in managing budgets, healthcare compliance, and program development.
She arrived at UAMS in 2004 and held roles as a project specialist, grant administrator, and department compliance manager. Most recently, she served from 2018-25 as the senior administrative services director at the UAMS Institute for Digital Health & Innovation, where her responsibilities included budget development and financial oversight.
Seidl earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Master of Public Administration degrees from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
Zaller and Seidl started their new posts Jan. 1.