Gloria B. Callwood, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, former dean of the School of Nursing at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), was recently inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) in recognition of her outstanding leadership in nursing spanning more than four decades.
The
American Academy of Nursing's approximately 1,500 fellows are
nursing leaders in education, management, practice and research. It
serves the public and the nursing profession by advancing health
policy and practice through the generation, synthesis and
dissemination of nursing knowledge. Invitation to fellowship is
more than recognition of one's accomplishments within the nursing
profession. AAN fellows also have a responsibility to contribute
their time and energies to the Academy, and to engage with other
health care leaders outside the Academy in transforming America's
health care system.
Dr. Callwood is the first elected fellow in the prestigious Academy whose professional career has been spent providing nursing leadership in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Caribbean. For over twenty years she served as the nurse manager of the Territory's only inpatient Behavior Health Unit, and was instrumental in transforming care from primarily custodial to a therapeutic community. She was the first nursing member of the Hospital Board in the St. Thomas/St. John District, where she influenced hospital policy and quality of care.
Dr. Callwood has been a faculty member at UVI since 1995. She served as division chair and later dean of the School of Nursing, where she provided leadership for the 2002 reaccreditation of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. Presently she is the principal investigator and director of the Caribbean Exploratory Research Center of Excellence at UVI, which has received over $8.5 million in grant funds from the National Institutes of Health-National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities. The Center's research includes studies on breast cancer, diabetes, HIV, women's issues, health effects of climate change, violent crime, multiple myeloma, and the health consequences of intimate partner violence. A project in Haiti is addressing violence and abuse of women and girls displaced by the January 2010 earthquake.
Dr. Callwood has served in leadership roles in a number of professional organizations including: regional director of the Caribbean Nursing Organization, president and vice-president of the Virgin Islands State Nurses Association, basileus of Chi Eta Phi Nursing Sorority Mu Eta Chapter, and Chi Eta Phi Southeast regional financial secretary.