Catherine L. Gilliss, PhD, RN, FAAN, is the Helene Fuld Health Trust Professor of Nursing at the Duke University School of Nursing and holds an appointment as Professor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine. Appointed as Dean of Duke’s School of Nursing in 2004, Dr. Gilliss was the first alumna in the history of the School to hold that position. She served for ten years as Dean of the School of Nursing and Vice Chancellor for Nursing Affairs at Duke University, stepping down in August 2014. She will be on leave for the 2014-2015 academic year, during which she will be a Fellow in the Stanford University Distinguished Careers Institute.
For over 40 years, Dr. Gilliss has held faculty appointments in universities offering baccalaureate and higher degrees in nursing. For the last twenty years she has held significant and progressively more responsible administrative leadership positions in academic nursing, including Chair, UCSF’s Department of Family Health Nursing (1993-1998), Dean, Yale University School of Nursing (1998-2004) and Dean and Vice Chancellor at Duke (2004-2014). Her own engagement in academic leadership and the leadership and governance of professional societies (President, National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties; President, American Academy of Nursing; Regent, University of Portland; Board Member, Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers [TROSA]) has strengthened her commitment to leadership development in others. Dr. Gilliss serves as a Director of CHIMERIX, a publically traded biopharmaceutical company devoted to discovery, development and commercialization of novel, oral antivirals in areas of high unmet medical need.
She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a member of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, has been honored as Distinguished Alumna by UCSF and Duke and is a member of Sigma Theta Tau. She has been awarded honorary degrees by Yale University (MA) and the University of Portland (DHL).