Biography of Mary W. Chaffee

Mary W. Chaffee, ScD(h), MS, RN, CNAA, FAAN
Board Member

Mary Chaffee is a PhD Candidate at the University of Maryland pursuing research on how the U.S. health system functions during disaster. Her studies have included a research internship at the University of Delaware Disaster Research Center. In 23 years of professional service, she has served in a variety of professional roles including staff nurse in critical care and emergency nursing, educator, administrator, health policy analyst, and graduate intern in the office of Senator Daniel K. Inouye. Following the events of September 11, 2001, she served in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Operations Center in Washington, DC.

Dr. Chaffee served on the executive board of the International Nursing Coalition on Mass Casualty Education and on the editorial board of Disaster Management & Response. She is co-editor of the text, Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care (4 th and 5 th editions) and the Disaster Management and Response issue of Nursing Clinics of North America (2005). She coordinates a column on disaster in the American Journal of Nursing.

She is an honors graduate of the University of Massachusetts where she completed bachelor's degrees in nursing and public health, and completed an internship at the Welsh National School of Medicine. In 1998 she received master of science degrees in Nursing Health Policy and Nursing Administration, and an Advanced Certificate in Health and Public Policy, from the University of Maryland.

Dr. Chaffee was awarded the degree Doctor of Science (honoris causa) by the University of Massachusetts in 2003 and was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 2001. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the International Nursing Honor Society.