Care Team Spotlight: Nancy Morris - Nurse Practitioner

Nancy is a nurse practitioner who spends her time between the UMass Memorial Diabetes Center of Excellence care team and the Geriatric Medicine clinic, in addition to her role as a Professor in the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing at UMass Chan Medical School.

Diabetes Care Philosophy

Every patient is an individual, so Nancy tries to understand each person’s situation. Working together to devise a plan to manage diabetes is extremely important. Nancy values open communication and feedback about how her patients are doing with their diabetes. She wants to hear about what is and isn’t working with the people she cares for.  Treatment plans can then be modified as necessary. Nancy sees herself as a guide. She works to support and help people manage their diabetes and health throughout their lives.

PhD Program Director at the UMass Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing

The focus of the PhD program is the development and transformation of scholars who will lead the discipline of nursing. “Nurses who are interested in engaging in research and in the academic world, for the most part, are drawn to this type of program,” says Dr. Morris.  “Wherever their interests lie, we mentor and coach them along the way, helping them to find the experts they need to build out their research team.”

The goal of the program is to educate nurses as scientists. It helps them expand their horizons by raising further questions for scientific inquiry, applying qualitative and quantitative research methods and fulfilling their professional responsibility to nursing and society.

About Nancy Morris, PhD, ANP-BC

Nancy earned her PhD in Nursing from Boston College. She also received her Master of Science in Nursing from BC focusing on the primary care of adults in the Adult Nurse Practitioner & Clinical Nurse Specialist program. Her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing is from Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island.

She joined the faculty in the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing at the UMass Chan Medical School in 2010. Prior to that, she spent 14 years as a faculty member at the University of Vermont educating nurse practitioner students.  Nancy completed the Program for Research in Medical Outcomes postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and continues her efforts at understanding health literacy and its relationship to health and health behaviors and outcomes.

In 2018, Nancy was awarded the Excellence in Nursing Education Award from the American Nurses Association Massachusetts. She received the UMass Chan Medical School Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing Dean’s Award in 2016 and a Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing Distinguished Faculty Award in 2020.

Nancy enjoys reading, gardening and working with yarn, particularly knitting and crocheting. She has two young adult children and "a wonderful dog that enjoys multiple walks each day."

Fun Fact

Nancy hasn't purchased strawberry jam from a store in 26 years, because each spring she and her husband make enough homemade jam to share with friends and family.