Dr. Catherine Curley Named Director of Center for Global and Public Health

In May, Catherine Curley, PhD, RN, clinical assistant professor, was named by Donna S. Havens, PhD, RN, FAAN, Connelly Endowed Dean and Professor, as the new director of the Center for Global and Public Health at the Fitzpatrick College of Nursing. She had served as interim director for the past year, where, among other initiatives, she moved forward with the center’s new strategic planning process and directed the interdisciplinary global health minor and public health webinars.

Dr. Curley came to Villanova as a full-time faculty member in March 2020 with a background in education, population and community health, hospital administration and business line strategy. She has been serving as a faculty member in the second degree accelerated BSN track and she teaches health promotion and Imperatives for Global and Public Health in the undergraduate program. She is part of the Curriculum Review Taskforce as well as the Villanova Reach Out Program for older adults. Over the past year, she served as a member of one of the University-wide COVID-19 task forces and had been a member of the Center for Global and Public Health Advisory Committee.

Dr. Curley’s teaching experience began as an adjunct faculty member for Villanova in 1997 in the community health and medical-surgical clinical rotations. She was full-time faculty at Temple University from 2001-2008 where she served as a course leader and taught in medical-surgical nursing, leadership and community health. Her community health experience at Temple included a role as a liaison with the Temple primary nursing center for projects with local schools focused on asthma, health literacy for elder immigrants in senior centers and various efforts with the health departments.

Dr. Curley obtained her MSN as a clinical nurse specialist in community health from West Chester University and she earned her PhD from Widener University with a focus in nursing science. Her research focused on knowledge assimilation into practice.