Afaf Meleis to be honored with 2019 Helen Manzer Award at graduation

NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing’s 2019 graduation ceremony will take place on Monday, May 20, 2019, 9:30 am - 12:30 pm at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th Street, New York, NY.

In addition to celebrating the more than 400 graduates of the Class of 2019, NYU Meyers Dean Eileen Sullivan-Marx, PhD, RN, FAAN, will present Afaf I. Meleis, PhD, DrPS(hon), FAAN, LL, with the 2019 Helen Manzer Award. Dr. Meleis will also deliver the keynote graduation address.

“I am thrilled to welcome Afaf Meleis as we celebrate the NYU Meyers Class of 2019,” said Dean Sullivan-Marx. “Dr. Meleis is a leading voice in nursing science and improving women's health globally, and has committed her career to cultivating the next generation of healthcare leaders.”

Dr. Meleis is an internationally renowned nurse-researcher and medical sociologist focused on global health, immigrant and women’s health, and on the theoretical development of the nursing discipline. Born in Egypt, her work aims to drive change in education, practice, research, policy, and care models around the world.

Dr. Meleis—inspired by her mother, a nurse, and educator who established graduate programs for nurses in the Middle East—earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing at the University of Alexandria in Egypt, and an MS in nursing and PhD in medical and social psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. She spent more than three decades as a faculty member at the University of California, first in Los Angeles and then in San Francisco.

As dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing from 2002 to 2014, Dr. Meleis focused on cultivating a community empowered to innovate and dedicated to making an impact on global healthcare. Although she formally retired in 2016 after a 50-year career as an educator and theorist, Dr. Meleis continues to be a speaker, mentor, and consultant. Through these roles, she gives voice to nurses’ centrality and contributions to health care, to theory, research, and health policies, as well as to the challenges women face in achieving quality care. Her goals are to uncover voices and to empower women—nurses in particular—to achieve optimum health and function up to their full capacity.

Dr. Meleis has received numerous awards and recognitions. She is an American Academy of Nursing Living Legend, Member of the National Academy of Medicine, and recipient of the Nell J. Watts Lifetime Achievement in Nursing Award from Sigma Theta Tau International. On May 20 she will receive the NYU Meyers Helen Manzer Award, which recognizes exemplary leadership on behalf of the health of the nation. Previous recipients of the Helen Manzer Award include Donna Shalala, PhD, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Claire Mintzer Fagin, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean emerita of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and an NYU Meyers alumna (’64).