Judith Karshmer leads the nursing school by promoting relationships between academia and community. She is praised for her advocacy for humane patient treatment as well as mental health law reform. She helped create the first doctorate of nursing program in California, and has been named among the Most Influential Women in the Bay Area in 2016.

Karshmer is the Dean of the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation.

She has worked with the San Francisco Health Commission. She is a board member for the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education and AACN Competency-Based Education for Doctoral Prepared APRNs National Task Force.