Dean Cipriano: A “Person to Meet in 2022”

Dean Pamela Cipriano has been named to Virginia Business magazine's annual list of "100 People to Meet in 2022."

The list - which includes leaders from across Virginia across 10 categories that include educators, go-getters, builders, public faces, and rainmakers - has been compiled annually since 2019. 

"A prominent voice for nurses for decades."

Virginia Business on Dean Pamela Cipriano, named one among the magazine's "100 People to Meet in 2022."

COVID-19 has "laid bare how essential nurses are, as well as their sacrifices," the magazine writes, calling Cipriano "a prominent voice for nurses for decades." 

"'[Nurses] take on the emotional burdens of the work, [and] they exhaust themselves doing everything that they know a patient and family needs,'" Cipriano says in the article. 

Cipriano - president of the ICN and two-term president of the American Nurses Association and the voice of the nation's four million RNs - is a seasoned nurse executive and served as UVA Health's Chief Nursing Officer for nine years when the hospital first earned Magnet status in 2006.

 Read STEPPING FORWARD As UVA School of Nursing Dean (VNL fall 2019)

Her more than 40-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 healthy behaviors to promote well-being. She served as a public-sector adviser in the U.S. Delegation to the 69th World Health Assembly in 2016, was 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. 

Cipriano's recent work with the Collaborative focuses 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 TIME’S UP Healthcare, which aims to eliminate sexual harassment and gender inequality in healthcare, and serves on the board of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation.

Cipriano has been repeatedly celebrated for exceptional leadership and contributions to the profession, including being a Distinguished Nurse Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute of Medicine and her induction as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and earning its Healthcare Leader Award. In addition to the accloade from Virginia Business, she was named among the “Top 100 Most Influential People in (U.S.) Healthcare” by Modern Healthcare magazine for four consecutive years (2015 to 2018), and one of its “Top 25 Women in Healthcare” in 2015. Cipriano served as the inaugural editor of American Nurse Today, the official journal of the American Nurses Association, for eight years. 

Dean Cipriano earned nursing diploma from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in 1976, a BSN from American University in 1978, and an MSN in 1981 from the University of Washington. In 1992, she earned a PhD in executive nursing administration from the University of Utah’s College of Nursing. She holds certification in Advanced Executive Nursing Administration.

Link to Virginia Business article and see the other "100 People to Meet in 2022."

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