Golden grad Golden grad Golden grad

Since earning her BSN from the UW, Dr. Pamela Mitchell, ’62, ’91, has blazed a trail in health care. This year, the UW Alumni Association presents her with the Golden Graduate Distinguished Alumna Award in recognition of her long-term engagement with the UW, including half of a century as a professor in nursing and public health. Here are just a few other accolades she humbly admits to:

• Co-created the Quality Health Outcomes Model, which redefined the way health- care professionals approach patient outcomes by focusing on patients’ lives outside the hospital.
• Joined the UW faculty in 1969.
• Received the UW School of Nursing Distinguished Teaching Award in 1982.
• Became a double-Dawg by earning her doctorate in philosophy from the UW in 1991.
• Authored or co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed journals, articles, books or book chapters, book reviews, abstracts and technical reports.
• Cited for her work more than 95,000 times. (Though research was her favorite part of her career, “I’m glad I don’t have to worry about those things anymore,” she says.)
• Co-founded the UW Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research and Practice – a community of health science faculty and staff dedicated to collaboration and teamwork – in 1997.
• Participated in a national effort to improve stroke and heart-attack recovery using talk therapy rather than relying solely on pharmaceuticals.
• Served as president of the American Academy of Nursing from 2007-2009.
• Received the UW’s highest leadership honor, the David Thorud Leadership Award, in 2014. Mitchell served in leadership roles at the UW’s highly acclaimed School of Nursing from 1999 until her retirement.
• Entered the Washington State Nurses’ Association hall of fame in 2022.

Born in Denver, Mitchell moved to Richland when she was young. She met her husband, Donald, while working at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the two moved to Seattle to continue their careers. Their three sons followed in her academic footsteps, all earning doctorate degrees (including Robert Mitchell, who earned his B.A. in 1994 and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in 2001 from the UW).

She served for 12 years on the board of Plymouth Healing Communities, a local nonprofit that provides housing and healing for people exiting psychiatric hospitalization, who are prone to homelessness. Mitchell retired in 2018 and now enjoys seeing the world on cruise vacations and looks forward to an African cruise with her family this summer.