Dr. Enna Trevathan joins Gavilan College as new Associate Dean of Nursing and Allied Health
by Jan Janes on Feb 7, 2020Gavilan College has hired Dr. Enna Trevathan, DNP, MSN, RN, MBA, CNL, as the new Associate Dean of Nursing and Allied Health. 
Dr. Enna Trevathan, outside the building where all the Allied Health programs
and clinicals take place.
Dr. Trevathan brings extensive nursing education, leadership management and curriculum development to Gavilan. The previous position had been filled on an interim basis for two years while the college conducted its search.
She will focus on some immediate challenges in her new role: Licensed Vocational Nursing (LVN) development and curriculum, a fall evaluation visit from the California Board of Registered Nursing, and revamping the current Registered Nursing (RN) program. She will also serve as a voice for the staff and faculty delivering Allied Health programs.
“Working with faculty and staff, this is an opportunity to build something new,” said Dr. Trevathan. “This break is a chance to make a better program.” For Fall 2019, the LVN program did not begin a new cohort.
Staff and faculty will develop new curriculum and submit it to the LVN State Board and Gavilan curriculum committee in mid-March 2020, with plans to restart a streamlined, three-semester LVN program in Spring 2021.
The Allied Health department will welcome the State Board of Nursing in November for evaluation. “We are preparing for the visit,” said Dr. Trevathan, “Working on self-studies and gathering all the data to have a good evaluation.”
The third challenge will change the LVN-to-RN pathway approach to standalone programs. Previously the RN program at the college only accepted students who had completed Gavilan’s LVN program.
“With the changes, the program can accept students from other two-year programs,” she said. “We would love to see it happen in 2021.” The restructuring will entail new curriculum, assessing the needs and expectations of the community and evaluating the facility and faculty capacity to take on new students.
Most recently, Dr. Trevathan was Director of Nursing at the College of San Mateo. She has worked for large institutions, including University of San Francisco and the Palo Alto VA Medical Center, in nursing higher education. She holds a Doctorate in Nursing Practice from University of San Francisco, and was in the first cohort through that program.
For her final doctoral project, she designed a teaching program at the VA, using academic research across multiple disciplines, to train nurses to implement and effect change at the micro level: their own hospital and units. The pilot program brought the training to the VA facility and located government and scholarship funding. In two years, 29 VA nurses earned MSN degrees.
“They wanted to make the lives of vets better. Along the way, those nurses changed how they viewed delivery of care and discovered structural ways to bring about change,” she said.
Dr. Trevathan got her start at community college. “I have two AA degrees, and my own nursing degree, from a community college,” she said. “I worked my way up from AA, then BS, then MS, and finally doctorate.”
And she discovered, early in her career, a pull toward teaching. “In healthcare practice we are always teaching at the same time, and learning from the people we are teaching. Not everybody comes from the same background.”
Her vision at Gavilan is to share her experience and encourage continuous learning. “What can I contribute? I can do it by planting the seeds with the community college students,” she said. “Within this culture, this economy, we need a diverse population to contribute to the community’s healthcare needs.”
“I understand the challenges of this community and of the students,” said Dr. Trevathan. “I emigrated from Haiti as a teenager. I understand having to learn English, being the first generation in my family to go to college and later, obtain advanced degrees.” Half of her brothers and sisters also have higher education certificates or degrees. Within her family, she has the most advanced degrees.
“Nursing is where my heart is,” she said. “I feel the warmth and acceptance here at Gavilan, and I have something to share. I’m home.”
For more information about career opportunities and all the programs offered, check out Allied Health at Gavilan College, email Eva Daley or call (408) 848-4883.