In recognition of their significant contributions to nursing and health care, Glenna Dowling and Janice Humphreys of the UCSF School of Nursing have been selected as Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing.
They are among 55 nurse leaders who will be inducted as fellows during the Academy's 33rd annual meeting on November 11, 2006, in Miami, Florida. More than 50 UCSF nurses are Fellows of the Academy.
In a statement announcing the 2006 inductees, Academy President Linda Burnes Bolton, DrPH, RN, FAAN, said, "The Academy is comprised of many of the nation's top nursing executives, policy makers, scholars, researchers, and practitioners. Induction into the Academy represents an esteemed honor and recognition of outstanding achievement."
Fellows are selected based on the recommendations of current fellows and evidence of significant contributions to nursing and health care. Selection is based, in part, on the extent to which nominees' nursing careers influence health policies for the benefit of all Americans.
Glenna A. Dowling, RN, PhD, is professor and chair of the UCSF School of Nursing Department of Physiological Nursing, associate director of the John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, and director of research at the Institute on Aging, a nonprofit in San Francisco. Dowling is a leader in designing improvements in health-care delivery for older adults with neurological impairments. She served on the NIH committee that developed national government research priorities for Alzheimer's disease, providing recommendations from a nursing perspective that continue to help guide research today. She was a member of the NIH Parkinson's Disease Agenda Implementation Review Committee, and co-founded the UCSF Parkinson's Disease Clinic and Research Center, designated by the National Parkinson's Foundation as a Center of Excellence. She also represents nursing on the California Academic Geriatric Resource Program and is active on the School of Nursing Diversity in Action Committee.
Dowling's research has influenced how older adults with neurological impairments and their caregivers manage disease to improve overall function and quality of life. Her work has contributed to the body of knowledge regarding how sleep and circadian rhythms are affected by chronic progressive neurological diseases and has tested interventions to improve these disturbances. Dowling emphasizes interdisciplinary, evidence-based studies that are translated into clinical practice, including clinical trials of novel pharmaceuticals as well as "high touch, low-tech" interventions aimed at improving functional mobility, mood, and quality of life for people living with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. In her role as director of research at the Institute on Aging, she facilitates partnerships with foundations, other community based organizations, government, and universities to conduct research and create services with far-reaching implications.
Janice C. Humphreys, RN, PNP, PhD, is associate professor and vice chair for faculty practice in the UCSF School of Nursing's Department of Family Health Care Nursing. Humphreys is a national and international expert on intimate partner violence. Her work is recognized as helping to change health care providers' perspectives, identifying domestic violence as a public health problem that goes far beyond the immediate effects of physical injury. Beginning with the publication of the book Nursing Care of Victims of Family Violence (with coauthor Jacquelyn Campbell), which won the American Journal of Nursing award in 1984, Humphreys has worked to influence nursing practice, education and research on intimate partner violence. She has worked with national commissions on violence and on nursing education, helped the nation of Columbia to establish its first nursing doctoral program, and is a charter member and twice president of the Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International. She maintains her clinical practice as an integral part of her teaching and research activities, providing nursing care to battered woman and their children in shelters in San Francisco.
Humphreys' research has documented the significant impact of intimate partner violence on the physical and mental health of abused women and their children. By working directly with abused women and their children, she has learned that far from being passive victims of family violence, battered women often are remarkably resilient and loving mothers who benefit from practical help and support to mitigate some of the effects of violence on their children and themselves. Her current work examines potential interventions for intimate partner violence and addresses long-term effects -- the relationships between partner violence, lifetime trauma exposure and abused women's symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain and depression. Over the past decade, she has expanded her collaborations with colleagues in Mexico, Colombia, and Hong Kong and added a focus on culturally specific aspects of domestic violence.
Kathleen Dracup, RN, DNSc, FAAN, FNP, dean of the UCSF School of Nursing, noted that with the induction of Humphreys and Dowling, the School will have 30 faculty and 19 faculty emeriti who are Fellows of the Academy -- one of the highest totals of any nursing school. UCSF also counts many Fellows among the School's volunteer faculty and among nurses active in research, clinical and administrative positions throughout the university.
"Of the approximately 2.5 million active nurses in the United States, only 1,500 are Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing," Dracup said. "These nurses have been identified by their peers as leaders who have accomplished extraordinary milestones in their careers. They are the best and the brightest in the nursing discipline and UCSF can be proud, indeed, of having such a high percentage among the academy membership. We are all looking forward to celebrating the newest UCSF inductees."
UCSF is a leading university that consistently defines health care worldwide by conducting advanced biomedical research, educating graduate students in the life sciences, and providing complex patient care.