EMBARKING ON A NEW ERA - UCLA School of Nursing

Kristine M. Gebbie, M.S.N. ’68, Dr.P.H.Gebbie has played a key role in matters of nursing, publichealth policy and emergency preparedness for manyyears, having worked with multiple federal, state andlocal agencies, as well as the New York PresbyterianHealthcare System. She served as chief state health officialin both Oregon and Washington, established thefirst AIDS Policy Office at the White House during theClinton administration, and directed all outpatient servicesat St. Louis University Medical Center. Most recently,Gebbie was named to the endowed Joan GrabeDeanship at Hunter College, City University of NewYork, in September 2009. Prior to that she served for 14years as Elizabeth Standish Gill Professor of Nursingand director of the Center for Health Policy at ColumbiaUniversity School of Nursing. Gebbie recently completeddirecting six years of emergency and bioterrorismtraining funded by the Health Resources and ServicesAdministration, through which she led the New YorkConsortium for Emergency Preparedness ContinuingEducation. Her current research is focused in publichealth infrastructure and public health law; she alsocontinues to be a leader in developing the public healthworkforce for the 21st century.Joan I. (Joni) Cohen,B.S. ’69, M.N. ’71, M.A., Ph.D. ’02After receiving her master’s degree, Cohen went towork as a clinical nurse specialist in psychiatric-mentalhealth nursing at the Greater Los Angeles Veterans’Administration Hospital. During that time she developedan expertise in psychodrama, a form of group therapy,and went on to complete a Master’s in SocialScience with an emphasis in Marriage and FamilyCounseling from Azusa Pacific College and become alicensed marriage and family therapist. Cohen has aparticular interest in the relationship between the mindbodyconnection and its impact on health and wellbeing, and has worked with a number of complementarytherapies. She returned to the UCLA School ofNursing to pursue her doctorate, receiving a VulnerablePopulations Fellowship and conducting research in improvinghealthcare outcomes in socially vulnerable populations.At the VA, where she currently works parttime, Cohen serves as a research mentor to nurses andother professionals in the Nursing Research MentorshipProgram. She co-leads a psychodrama group with psychiatricpatients at the VA and maintains a small privatepractice as a psychiatric nurse therapist.19701970sDianne S. Moore, M.P.H., M.N. ’70, Ph.D.Throughout her career, Moore has been an innovatorand leader of change, using best practices and new ideasto help provide patients, students and communitieswhat they need in a manner that serves them best. Sheis currently the founding dean of nursing at West CoastUniversity and vice president for nursing academics forthe three WCU campuses. West Coast University nursingstarted in 2005 and now admits approximately 80undergraduate students to each of three campuses every10 weeks. After obtaining her M.N. from the UCLASchool of Nursing, Moore worked as the first clinicalnurse specialist at Saint John’s Hospital in Santa Monica,Calif. She later moved to Oregon, where she wasthe state’s first perinatal clinical nurse specialist andplayed a key role in developing the regional perinatalhelicopter transport system. Moore also became a certifiednurse midwife while attending New York Universityfor her doctorate.