Debbie Ward, R.N., Ph. D., FAAN is the founding faculty member of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at the University of California Davis, established in 2010. Her bachelor's degree in government is from Oberlin College [Ohio], and her master's in nursing from Yale University [Connecticut]. She started her work in nursing as a home health aide. Educated as a family nurse practitioner, she practiced in an inner city primary care center and a public health geriatric clinic before earning her PhD in health policy from Boston University [Massachusetts], where she was a Pew Doctoral Fellow. Before coming to UC Davis, she was on faculty at the University of Washington. In addition to consultative and professional association work, Dr. Ward spent a nine-year term (including 3 as Chair) on the consumer-elected Board of Trustees of Group Health Cooperative, the Pacific Northwest's pioneering Health Maintenance Organization.
My practice and scholarly interests include health policy and politics, the changing content and structure of health service delivery in the US, and addressing the injustice of widespread health disparities. My most recent studies include improving cultural humility in providers of diabetes care, designing patient-centered clinic visits, and being part of a team piloting n-of 1 studies using a patient-centered app to monitor chronic pain.
