Dr. Guy Weissinger Appointed the Diane Foley Parrett Endowed Assistant Professor

Guy Weissinger II, PhD, RN has been appointed as the Diane Foley Parrett Endowed Assistant Professor in the Fitzpatrick College of Nursing. 

This Endowed Assistant Professorship is made possible through the generous gift of Mr. William Parrett in honor of his wife who is a nurse. His mother was also a nurse and his twin daughters both graduated from the Fitzpatrick College of Nursing in 2009. The Parrett Family also generously gifted the beautiful statue on the front lawn of Driscoll Hall several years ago.

Dr. Weissinger is a nurse scientist and educator with a focus on mental health and health systems. His research focuses on working with patients, providers, and family members to better understand and improve health care. Originally a therapist before becoming a nurse, he uses mixed methods approaches to complex problems like suicide prevention, adolescent mental health, and health workforce. Dr. Weissinger has clinical experience in emergency medicine, outpatient mental health, public health nursing, and home care. His clinical, teaching, and research practice are all informed by a health equity lens and the belief that structural inequalities must be understood and confronted to create lasting change.

He completed a Golisano Fellowship in Developmental Disability Nursing at the Golisano Institute for Developmental Disability in Nursing at St. John Fisher University, a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Center for Family Intervention Science in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University and he completed a T-32 Pre-Doctoral Research Fellowship, “Research on Vulnerable Women, Children, and Families.” at the School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania.

Since 2020, Dr. Weissinger has served as an Assistant Professor of Nursing (Tenure-Track) in the Fitzpatrick College of Nursing at Villanova University. He currently serves as a Research Consultant for a Garrett Lee Smith Suicide Prevention PA State Grant funded by SAMHSA through Thomas Jefferson University. He is currently he a Co-Investigator on a grant funded by the Reading Hospital Foundation (Reading, Pa.) to study “The Impact of Narrative Expressive Writing (NEW) on improving resilience in nurses working in critical care and emergency departments.”

Dr. Weissinger is actively disseminating his important scholarship through numerous peer reviewed publications, alternative media and national/international presentations.

He earned his BSN and PhD in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, a BA (Psychology and Religious Studies), from Rice University in Houston, Texas, an MSEd (Counseling and Psychological Services) and MPhil (Professional Counseling) from the University of Pennsylvania. He also earned a Graduate Certificate (Biostatistics) from Drexel University.