UR School of Nursing Commencement Speaker Announced

Bobbie Berkowitz, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, dean and Mary O’Neil Mundinger professor of nursing at Columbia University School of Nursing and senior vice president of the Columbia University Medical Center, will speak at the University of Rochester School of Nursing graduation ceremony on May 19 at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. 

Bobbie Berkowitz

Berkowitz is a leading expert in research on public health systems and health equity. In addition to her role at Columbia University, she holds the title of professor emerita at the University of Washington, where she was the Alumni Endowed Professor of Nursing, chair of the Department of Psychosocial and Community Health, and adjunct professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine. She also served as consulting professor with Duke University and the University of California at Davis.

Berkowitz was the primary investigator on the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research-funded Center for the Advancement of Health Disparities Research. She also served as the primary investigator and director of the National Program Office for the 10-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Turning Point Initiative, which strengthened public health infrastructure in the United States through state and local partnerships.

Prior to her role at the University of Washington, she served as deputy secretary for the Washington State Department of Health and chief of nursing services for the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health. Berkowitz was a member of the Washington State Board of Health, the Washington Health Care Commission, and Washington State Academy of Science, and she chaired the Board of Trustees of Group Health Cooperative.

She currently serves as president of the American Academy of Nursing and as a member of the board of trustees for the New York Academy of Medicine. She is on the editorial boards of Public Health Nursing, the Journal of Doctoral Nursing Practice, and LGBT Health. Berkowitz is an elected fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, and elected member of the New York Academy of Medicine.

She holds a PhD in Nursing Science from Case Western Reserve University, and Master of Nursing and Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Washington.