Catherine Lynch Gilliss, DNSc

Catherine Lynch Gilliss, DNScCatherine L. Gilliss, DNSc, RN, FAAN, is Helene Fuld Health Trust Professor of Nursing and dean of the Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON) and Duke Medicine’s first vice chancellor for nursing affairs. Having earned her BSN degree in 1971 from Duke University, she is the first alumna in the School of Nursing’s history to hold the position of dean.

Gilliss earned her MSN degree in 1974 from the Catholic University of America and her DNSc degree in 1983 from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she completed her postdoctoral studies, joined the School of Nursing faculty, and from 1993 to 1998 was professor and chair of the Department of Family Health Care. From 1998 until her arrival at Duke in 2004, she was professor and dean at the Yale University School of Nursing.

Since her return to Duke in 2004, Gilliss has presided over the approval of the PhD in nursing and DNP degree programs, the construction of a 59,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art building, and the development of the 2006-2011 strategic plan. During her tenure, DUSON has risen to become one of the nation’s top 15 schools of nursing in U.S.News & World Report rankings and NIH funding. Under her leadership, DUSON has identified strategic priorities, including the introduction of technology into educational programs, the demonstration of financially viable models of innovative nursing service delivery, and the strengthening of the partnership between nursing education and service delivery for the improvement of both. The development of the Duke Translational Nursing Institute is one important example of that partnership.

As an educator, she has worked to address the nation’s nursing shortage, diversify the nation’s nursing workforce, and advance nursing science. As a leader, she has served as a regent of the University of Portland, president of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF), the Kappa Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, and chaired the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research, Nursing Sciences Review Committee. In November 2009, she will assume the two-year presidency of the American Academy of Nursing.

Her scientific work and writing have been seminal to the study of the family within nursing. Her accolades include NONPF’s Outstanding Nurse Practitioner Educator Award, the Pew Charitable Trust’s Excellence in Primary Care Education Program Award, Book of the Year awards from Pediatric Nursing and American Journal of Nursing, the International Family Nursing Society's Distinguished Contribution to Family Nursing Research Award, the Distinguished Alumnus Award from DUSON in 1991, and the Triangle Business Journal's Health Care Heroes Award.