Mary Starke Harper Distinguished Lectureship

The 2007 Recipient of the Mary Starke Harper Distinguished Lectureship Award is Shirley Chater, RN, PhD, FAAN.

Shirley Chater, RN, PhD, FAAN

Dr. Chater served as the Commissioner of the United States Social Security Administration from l993-1997 during the Clinton administration where she was responsible for 65,000 employees and a budget that exceeded 480 billion dollars. During her term of office she initiated a “putting customers first” strategy and redesigned selected business processes for more efficient and effective services. Based on an independent, outside study, the Social Security Administration received the highest ranking of success for customer service when compared with ten other companies, including Nordstrom’s, AT&T, JC Penney’s, etc.

From l986 until 1993 she served as President of Texas Woman’s University with its main campus in Denton, and health science campuses in Dallas and Houston. Major restructuring of colleges and departments led to increased enrollment and stable finances. The New York Times cited TWU for its participatory team management style.
During her leadership a community health clinic for the underserved was created and managed by the faculty of the School of Nursing in Denton. At the Houston Center, De Madras De Madras (from mother to mother) received national acclaim for the care given by Hispanic mothers to Hispanic pregnant women, supervised by the nursing faculty. A special baccalaureate program for single mothers and their children offering campus housing, child-care and work study served as a model for other universities and is still in existence today.

Dr. Chater also served for many years as a faculty member at the University of California at San Francisco, School of Nursing and at U.C. Berkeley in the School of Education. She held the positions of Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at UCSF from 1977 to 1982 and Associate Vice Chancellor for the preceding 4 years.

She is a member of the American Academy of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She has also been elected to the Academy of Public Administration and the Academy of Social Insurance. In 2000, Dr. Chater was named a “Living Legend” by the American Academy of Nursing.

Dr. Chater holds a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in nursing from the University of California, San Francisco. She received here Ph.D. in education from the University of California, Berkeley. In addition, she earned a certificate in management from the Alfred Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Chater is the recipient of thirteen honorary doctoral degrees from various colleges and universities, including her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania.

Among other honors and awards she has received are the distinguished alumna awards from the Schools of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, San Francisco. In l997, she received the University Medal from the University of California, San Francisco, the highest award given by the University. She was honored as a University of California Regents’ Professor in 1997-1998. She also received the John P. McGovern, MD, Annual Award from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing in l996 and the Sigma Theta Tau, Honor Society, Lucia S. Kelly Mentor Award in 1995.

She has served on many boards, commissions, and committees for the ANA, AAN, and the NLN and was an advisor for 12 years to the Kellogg National Leadership Program. She was a co-director of the University of California, San Francisco, John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence from 1999 until 2005.

Dr. Chater currently serves as the Chair of the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows Program, a position she has held for the past ten years. The Executive Nurse Fellows Program is an advanced leadership program for nurses in senior executive roles in health services, public health, and nursing education who aspire to help lead and shape the US health care system of the future.

As an independent lecturer and consultant, Dr. Chater works with universities, organizations, foundations and individuals on management and leadership development issues.