Georgetown University’s Berkley School of Nursing celebrated the launch of its new doctoral program in nursing, the university announced Sept. 11.

Designed for experienced nurses as a full-time doctoral program based at the Capitol Campus, the program prepares graduates to be leaders for change in nursing. The inaugural cohort will engage in coursework and dissertation research that will focus on ethics and health equity. 

Program Director Edilma Yearwood said she and her colleague, Dr. Kelley Anderson, designed the program to fill a gap they saw in other doctoral nursing programs by combining ethics and equity.

“When Dr. Kelley Anderson and I put this program together, we looked at the strengths of the university, but we also looked at what our competitors had in their Ph.D. nursing programs, and we didn’t find any that had these two things pulled together: ethics and equity,” Yearwood told The Hoya. “So, I think we are unique in that space and have an opportunity to make significant contributions to the profession and to nursing science.”

Dr. Rick García — whose research centers on health equity — said the program has broad potential impact. 

“From a faculty perspective, I am most excited to see how this long-awaited Ph.D. program focused on ethics and health equity will shape the future of nursing science, education, practice and policy,” García wrote to The Hoya. “The dissertation research our students undertake, and the funded programs of research they will later build, will extend the impact of Georgetown nursing far beyond the classroom.”

The program incorporates rigorous coursework across ethics, equity, policy and research methods to provide students with multidisciplinary training. In the first year, students will take foundational courses such as “Philosophy of Science and Foundations in Nursing Science” before progressing to more quantitative and qualitative research methodology in the second year. The final two years are dedicated to dissertation proposal defense and research.

Yearwood said the program is designed to foster collaboration and mutual learning between faculty and students. 

“We want to create environments of learning where we are co-learning,” Yearwood said. “We are going to learn as much from these Ph.D. nursing students as they’re learning from us, and we want to see how we can work together to move nursing science forward.”

“The students are already very accomplished clinicians, so they bring rich health care experiences to the learning environment,” Yearwood added.

Sydney West (GRD ’29), a member of the inaugural cohort, said she was drawn to the program’s integrated approach to ethics. 

“I am grateful for the ethics infrastructure that is so well integrated into the program because I think this lens is crucial for the kind of research that I aim to do,” West wrote to The Hoya. “I chose Georgetown for this reason and for the program’s focus on interdisciplinary collaboration.”

West added that her background in humanities made Georgetown an especially good fit. 

“As someone who brings both a humanities and nursing background to doctoral work, I feel that the program at Georgetown is uniquely reflective of my talents and of the work that I hope to do,” West wrote. “I am thrilled to be mentored and supported by like-minded faculty at Georgetown, and I look forward to being a pioneer for subsequent cohorts of Ph.D. students.”

Intima Alrimawi, a faculty member in the program whose research focuses on bettering care for disadvantaged families, said faculty guidance is key to the program.

 “As a faculty member in the Ph.D. program, I see my role as a mentor,” Alrimawi told The Hoya. “We mentor a doctoral student as they refine their research and grow, personally and professionally, in their Ph.D. journey, and build their scholarly skill.”

García said the program reflects Georgetown’s broader mission of purpose-driven education.

“Within the broader Georgetown community, the program embodies the University’s mission to educate ethical scholars and leaders who will contribute to the common good,” García said. “By investing in this program, Georgetown has signaled its recognition of nursing’s essential role in shaping the health of individuals, families and communities locally, nationally and globally.”