Joanne Disch is an American

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

ad honorem ''Ad honorem'' is a Latin phrase that literally can be translated as "to the honor". When used today, it generally means "for the honor of"; that is, not seeking any material reward. It is commonly used in universities for certain unpaid teaching ...

nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

School of Nursing Nurse education consists of the theoretical and practical training provided to nurses with the purpose to prepare them for their duties as nursing care professionals. This education is provided to student nurses by experienced nurses and other med ...

. She is best known for her contributions improving

patient safety Patient safety is a discipline that emphasizes safety in health care through the prevention, reduction, reporting and analysis of error and other types of unnecessary harm that often lead to adverse patient events. The frequency and magnitude of a ...

health administration Health administration, healthcare administration, healthcare management or hospital management is the field relating to leadership, management, and administration of public health systems, health care systems, hospitals, and hospital networks ...

, and nurse-physician relationships. As an advocate for

, Disch has testified before Congress sharing both large-scale data and compelling case studies.

Education

Disch earned her BS in

at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

in 1968, in 1976, she earned an MS in nursing at

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a Public university#United States, public List of research universities in the United States, research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established i ...

, and her doctorate in 1985 from

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Career

She started her career as a staff nurse in cardiovascular intensive care and she has served as a chief nurse executive in two major medical centers. She has co-authored the award-winning text "Person and Family Centered Care". Disch was named as the Katherine R. and C. Walton Lillehei Chair in Nursing Leadership in 2000 at the

. In 2000–2012, Disch was the director of the

's Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership, part of the

. Disch is a Fellow of the

American Academy of Nursing The American Academy of Nursing (AAN) is a professional organization that generates, synthesizes, and disseminates nursing knowledge to contribute to health policy and practice for the benefit of the public and the nursing profession. Founded in 1 ...

, an organization for which she served as president from 2011 to 2013. In 2018, she was named a Living Legend, nursing's highest honor. She has also served as president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses and as board member and chair of the national board of

AARP AARP (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons) is an interest group in the United States focusing on issues affecting those over the age of fifty. The organization said it had more than 38 million members in 2018. The magazin ...

where she led organization through a major restructuring. In 2016, Disch was elected chair of the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

Aurora Health Care Advocate Aurora Health (AAH) is a non-profit health care system with dual headquarters located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Downers Grove, Illinois. As of 2021, the AAH system has 26 hospitals and more than 500 sites of care, with 75,000 em ...

, a

not for profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

health-care system headquartered in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

. In 2018, Disch was elected chair of the board of directors after the merger of

and Advocate Healthcare, the largest healthcare provider in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. The joint

healthcare system Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profess ...

is the 10th largest in the United States. In September 2019, she was succeeded by John Daniels Jr. as chair of Advocate Aurora board. Currently, Disch serves as chair of the Chamberlain University Board of Trustees.

Awards

* President's Award from the American Academy of Nursing * Marguerite Rodgers Kinney Award for a Distinguished Career from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses * Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Wisconsin, Madison * Distinguished Alumna awards from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the University of Michigan. * "Living Legend" by the American Academy of Nursing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Disch, Joanne Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing American women nurses Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Place of birth missing (living people) University of Minnesota faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Nursing alumni University of Alabama at Birmingham alumni University of Michigan School of Nursing alumni American women academics 21st-century American women