What is a Lifetime Award?
A Lifetime Achievement award is by its very nature intended to honor a person who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to the professional values of research, leadership, and educational mentorship. This year we honor a member of our professional community who has quietly changed the way nurses think about elderly patients experiencing mental illness.
This recipient of the Sigma Theta Tau Delta Upsilon–at–Large Lifetime Achievement Award has quietly yet effectively woven her professional life’s work into a simple, silk tapestry. As gentle in demeanor as fine silk threads she has quietly woven strands of professional activities to create a fabric of greater understanding among gerontological-mental health providers.
This year’s recipient, Dr. Ellen McCarty, began her nursing career in 1969 when she graduated from Salve Regina University. She then earned a MS from Boston University, received a graduate Fellowship in Geriatric Mental Health in the Harvard University Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, and a PhD from Boston College. Along the way she also cared for her mother who is rapidly approaching 100 years of age and raised two children, Danny and Katie, who inspired by their mother, have now also earned doctorates in their fields.
Ellen has held teaching positions at the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth, MA, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA, Boston University School of Medicine, and Salve Regina University. Her service to SRU has included many committees, including serving as co-chair of the department of nursing for more than 3 years and chair of the Institutional Review Board for four years.
Ellen has conducted research, maintained a private practice focused on the care of the elderly, and educated a new generation of mental health nurses. Always generous with her time, countless colleagues, graduate, and undergraduate students have received the benefit of her patient mentoring.
The respect of her colleagues in the field of mental health and elder care has led to Ellen being invited to participate on a number of programs of research, while continuing to develop her own research trajectory.
Ellen has quietly shared her findings through more than 45 presentations at regional, national, and international conferences and 13 publications in peer-reviewed journals. In 2007, Ellen was selected as a Fulbright Senior Specialist Scholar for the University of Brunswick, Canada.
Ellen has served on a variety of community committees in a range of capacities during her career. Currently she serves on the Board of Trustees of St. Joseph Hospital and is a member of that hospital’s Quality Patient Care Committee.
The tapestry created by Dr. Ellen McCarty is composed of threads representing her loved ones, her friends, her students, her professional colleagues, and the elderly she serves. It represents a life shaped by many experiences and lasting achievements. Dr. Ellen McCarty, you exemplify the vision of STTI, “using knowledge, scholarship, service and learning to improve the health of the world’s people.” Our heartfelt thanks for all you offer us personally and professionally.
Connect With Us...