Ellen M. Dawson

Ellen M. Dawson is professor emerita, a member of GW Nursing's Advisory Council and was founding senior associate dean for academic affairs. Prior to the school's founding, Dr. Dawson served as chair of the Department of Nursing Education, School of Medicine and Health Sciences for George Washington University.

Dr. Dawson has over 20 years of experience teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level and more than 30 years of clinical experience as an RN and later as an adult nurse practitioner. She provided leadership to the faculty to develop the master of science in nursing, doctor of nursing practice and the bachelor of science in nursing second-degree programs. Under her leadership, the department grew from less than 50 students to over 400.

Dr. Dawson was previously a co-primary investigator on a $900,000 two-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) grant “Implementing a National Nursing Quality and Safety Alliance” to strengthen nursing’s ability to influence health care quality and safety and a co-investigator on a two-year RWJF grant on Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative, developing and testing nursing quality measures with consumers and patients.