Dr. Rose Leigh Vines Scholarship for Academic Excellence

The Dr. Rose Leigh Vines Scholarship for Academic Excellence will be created in honor of the late Dr. Rose Leigh Vines, a leader in her field who published over forty multimedia anatomy teaching tools for Pearson Publishing, A.D.A.M., and Micron Biosystems. The scholarship is intended to support students in the Department of Biological Sciences.

Rose Leigh Vines was born in Cookeville, Tennessee, in 1945. After graduating from Tennessee Tech in 1966 with a degree in Biology and completing her training in 1968 at St. Thomas Hospital’s School of Medical Technology, she worked for eleven years before earning her Ph.D. in Anatomy at the University of Kentucky. From there, Rose Leigh relocated to Sacramento, California, where she embarked on an illustrious thirty-eight-year career in higher education—first at California State University, Sacramento, and later, in retirement, at California Northstate University.
Rose Leigh joined the faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences at California State University, Sacramento in 1976, where she taught anatomy, body fluid analysis, clinical hematology, and histology. In addition to teaching at CSU Sacramento, she served as Director of Distance and Distributed Education, the University Faculty Athletic Representative to the NCAA, and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences.
She was the first faculty member to receive the Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences, and also received the Medical Technologist of the Year award from the California Association for Medical Laboratory Technology in recognition of her many contributions to the clinical laboratory sciences profession. Rose Leigh was a leader in her field and published over forty multimedia anatomy teaching tools for Pearson Publishing, A.D.A.M., and Micron Biosystems.
After retiring from CSU Sacramento in 2011, Rose Leigh joined the faculty at California Northstate University College of Medicine as a Professor of Anatomy and became the Founding Dean of the College of Health Sciences.
Rose Leigh was an exceptional faculty member. Her courses were rigorous, incorporated technology, and provided students with the knowledge and skills to be competitive for admission into professional schools and clinical laboratory training programs. She was a devoted mentor to her students, who absolutely adored her. Numerous doctors, physical therapists, nurses, and clinical laboratory technologists throughout California owe their early training to Rose Leigh.
In 2017, Rose Leigh returned to Cookeville, Tennessee, to be close to her family—her sister and brother-in-law, Melinda and Ron Swann; her nephews Jeff, Ben, and Robert Swann; and numerous great-nieces and nephews—as well as the many friends she made in her hometown. In retirement, she was an avid traveler and a self-described “sports nut” who enjoyed attending, watching, and recording all kinds of sports. She was especially fond of college women’s volleyball and all college football and basketball.
Rose Leigh passed away suddenly in August 2023.