My Residency at The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center

The Rockefeller Foundation played an instrumental role in my life and for my career. It was their scholarship support, through the University of Alexandria, that jump started my graduate education at the University of California, Los Angeles in the 60’s. And once again, I find The Rockefeller Foundation playing an important role at this juncture in my life. I just returned from a one month residency/fellowship at the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, Italy, which I received to continue working on areas for which I have a deep seated/lifelong passion, with the goal to connect all three of them: women and health and the urbanization transition and the history and structure of the discipline of nursing.  

My experiences just prior to and during the residency are an important context for my residency goals, and definitely added to its timeliness and significance. I completed the term of my deanship at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Nursing and was in transition to focus on unfinished business, as well as to build on my scholarship. Therefore, this Rockefeller residency, during this important career transition, meant a great deal to my husband and myself. I hoped that the residency would be a period of restoration, regeneration and rediscovery. The intent was not to go back to where I was before the deanship, rather to use the time to integrate my scholarly and leadership experiences, to move to the next phase of my being, and to jump start that phase by building on my passionate interest in women' health. More specifically, to explore progress made, or lack of it, in health care for women in urban areas. I also wanted to think about the role that health care professionals, particularly nurses, can play in developing enabling urban environments that empower women, facilitate their daily lives, and enhance their health and well-being. With 20 million nurses globally, 90% of whom are women, and at the cusp of the announcement of the sustainable millennium goals, it was imperative to pause and consider a futuristic action agenda.

It will take months to sort out the impact of my residency and, to complete all that I started while in Bellagio. In future blogs I will continue to reflect on the residency, on the network that emerged and on short and long term accomplishments.