Dr. Pamela F. Cipriano
PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
President, International Council of Nurses
Dean of the University of Virginia School of Nursing
and Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor
Season 05 - Episode 06
Dr. Pamela Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
Pamela Cipriano is the Dean of the University of Virginia School of Nursing and Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor of Nursing. She also took office as the 29th President of the International Council of Nurses in November, 2021. Prior to becoming Dean, she served two terms as the president of the American Nurses Association from 2014 until December 2018, representing the interests of the nation’s 4 million registered nurses. She has extensive experience as an academic medical center executive and served for nine years as the chief clinical officer/chief nursing officer in the UVA Health System, where she was responsible for all inpatient and outpatient clinical services. Under her leadership the Health System earned its initial American Nurses Credentialing Center “Magnet” designation in 2006.
Dean Cipriano’s advocacy for the nursing profession is well-recognized. She is known nationally and internationally as a strong advocate for quality, growing nursing’s influence on health care policy, and leading efforts to advance the role and visibility of nurses. She served as a public-sector adviser in the U.S. delegation to the 69th World Health Assembly in 2016.
Cipriano’s 40-plus-year career in nursing is also marked by a focus on improving the safety and efficiency of care by ensuring a healthy, safe and supportive work environment and encouraging individual healthy behaviors to promote well-being. She has been a leader in the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience and was instrumental in advancing strategies to reduce regulatory burden and revamp electronic documentation to relieve clinicians of unnecessary work. Her recent work with the Collaborative is focusing on mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of all clinicians by addressing the psychological safety and support for caregivers as well as reducing the stigma of seeking mental health care as primary prevention for burnout syndrome and depression. She also serves as an advisor to Times Up Health Care which aims to eliminate sexual harassment and gender inequality in health care.
Among her many honors and awards for exceptional leadership and contributions to the profession, she was the Distinguished Nurse Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute of Medicine in 2010-11 and is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, earning its Healthcare Leader Award in 2018. She was ranked number 2 on Healthcare Global’s list of the Top 10 women in healthcare for 2021. She was also named among the “Top 100 Most Influential People in (U.S.) Healthcare” by Modern Healthcare magazine for four consecutive years (2015 to 2018), and also in 2015 as one of its “Top 25 Women in Healthcare.” Cipriano also served as the inaugural editor of American Nurse Today, the official journal of the American Nurses Association for 8 years.
Cipriano earned a Diploma in Nursing from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, a BSN from American University, an MN from the University of Washington and a PhD in executive nursing administration from the University of Utah. She holds certification in Advanced Executive Nursing Administration.
