Afaf Meleis

Afaf Ibrahim Meleis (born March 19, 1942) is an Egyptian-American nursing scientist and educator. She is the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Professor of Nursing and Sociology, and Director of the School's WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing and Midwifery Leadership. Meleis is a former faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, San Francisco.

She is a Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing and a member of the Institute of Medicine. She is a trustee of the National Health Museum, and a board member of CARE. She is the former president and council general (2002–10) of the International Council on Women's Health Issues (ICOWHI).

Biography

Meleis was born in Alexandria, Egypt. Her mother was a prominent nurse in Egypt, having been the first nurse to earn MPH and PhD degrees at an Egyptian university. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Alexandria in 1961. She earned an MS in nursing (1964), an MA in sociology (1966) and a PhD in medical and social psychology (1968) from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to coming to Penn, she spent more than 30 years on the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, San Francisco.

Meleis' scholarship is focused on global health, immigrant and international health, women's health, and on nursing theory development. She is the author of more than 175 articles in social sciences, nursing and medical journals; 40 chapters; and numerous monographs, proceedings, and books. She has been invited for visiting professorships and to conduct symposia, present keynote addresses, serve on boards, plan conferences, and consult on women's health research and doctoral education internationally. Meleis studied the concept of role insufficiency - the problems faced by people performing new roles - and defined a therapeutic intervention known as role supplementation. This work led her to an interest in life transitions, ultimately resulting in the development of a nursing theory known as Transition Theory.

Honors

In 1990, she received the Medal of Excellence from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for professional and scholarly achievements, and in 2000 she received the Chancellor's Medal from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 2001, she received the Chancellor's Award for the Advancement of Women from the University of California, San Francisco and in 2004, she received the Pennsylvania Commission for Women Award in celebration of Women's History Month and the Special Recognition Award in Human Services from the Arab American Family Support Center in New York. In 2006, she was awarded the Robert E. Davies Award from the Penn Professional Women's Network for her advocacy of women, and an Honorary Fellowship by the UK Royal College of Nursing for her outstanding contribution to academic achievement in the fields of nursing theory, women's health and global health.

In 2015, Meleis was named a Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing, recognizing "extraordinary contributions to the nursing profession."

Selected works

• Theoretical Nursing: Development and Progress (1985, 1991, 1997, 2004, 2006) ISBN 978-1-60547-211-9
• Women's Work, Health and Quality of Life (2001) ISBN 978-0-7890-1660-7
• Caring for Women Cross Culturally (2002; co-author with Patricia Hill and Juliene Lipson) ISBN 978-0-8036-1004-0

External links

• Faculty profile page at the University of Pennsylvania
• Biodata