Title: Clinical Nursing Educator
Company: University of Washington
Location: Seattle, Washington, United States
Vivian C. Wolf-Wilets, Clinical Nursing Educator at the University of Washington, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Nurses for dedication, achievements, and leadership in nursing education.
Dr. Wolf-Wilets was inspired to pursue nursing by her mother, who had started nursing education but never finished the program. Dr. Wolf-Wilets earned a BSN from North Central College in 1960 and an MA in education from the University of Chicago in 1964. She then completed coursework at the University of Marquette as a fellow in 1965 before earning a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1969. Dr. Wolf-Wilets shared her knowledge at the University of Washington, Seattle, where she held the roles of assistant professor, associate professor, full professor, and chair of the nursing department between 1969 and 1999. In addition to her main pursuits, Dr. Wolf-Wilets taught as a distinguished visiting professor at the University of California San Francisco from 1987 to 1988 as well as a consultant and speaker at numerous schools and organizations of nursing in China, Norway, Israel, Brazil, Australia, and Taiwan, among other regions, from 1970 to 1994.
An area Dr. Wolf-Wilets developed in nursing was memory theory. She wrote some of the early publications on this and developed a course on memory theory related to healthcare at the University of Washington. Due to her efforts, many healthcare locations have memory units. Dr. Wolf-Wilets had a very strong background in curriculum and instruction from the University of Chicago and was able to apply that to nursing in numerous ways. She helped revise curriculum and she led the baccalaureate curriculum revision which resulted in the University of Chicago’s rating as one of the top nursing schools for 20 years. Dr. Wolf-Wilet has done work nationally on the subject including contributing chapters to books and articles to professional journals as well as consulting and serving on visiting committees for accreditation, both nationally and internationally.
As a testament to her success, Dr. Wolf-Wilets has been a grantee of the Department of Health, had her doctoral education supported by the National Institute of Health, and was named as an Outstanding Young Women of Washington and an Outstanding Young Women of America in 1971. She holds membership with the Washington League for Nursing and is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and attributes her success to perseverance and tenacity in the field and personal life. Of her accomplishments, Dr. Wolf-Wilets is most proud of her students and the success they have found.
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