July 5, 2016
City Tech Professor Margaret Rafferty, DNP, MPH, MA, RN, chair of the Department of Nursing, was recently named a 2016 Nurse.com GEM (Giving Excellence Meaning) Award regional finalist. The GEM Awards recognize nurses and the extraordinary contributions they make to patients, the profession and the nation's healthcare in leadership, management, education, volunteer, and clinical practice roles. Dr. Rafferty is a regional finalist in the Education & Mentorship Award category and will be honored at the Nurse.com GEM Awards Dinner on September 9, 2016.
"I am delighted to be recognized as a GEM Award regional finalist while serving the important mission of The City University of New York (CUNY) and helping our talented students at City Tech transform their lives and those of the community," said Dr. Rafferty. "Our students make tremendous sacrifices to achieve success in a rigorous academic and clinical program provided by our committed full-time and adjunct faculty. I feel grateful to be able to lead this collaborative effort."
The GEM Award is unique in that the nurses it recognizes are nominated by nurses, selected by nurses, and honored by nurses. Each year Nurse.com conducts a nationwide search for the best of the best in nursing, generating hundreds of nominations that nurses judge then score. In the fall, GEM Award events, at which regional finalists are honored, are held in cities nationwide.
Dr. Rafferty received her BS in Nursing from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, her MA in Nursing from New York University, her MPH from Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, and her Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) from Case Western Reserve University's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.
Dr. Rafferty has had a career of over 40 years in both nursing education and clinical practice. She was an Associate Professor and Associate Dean at Long Island College Hospital School of Nursing for almost twenty years prior to joining the City Tech faculty in 2007. She also served on both the City Tech and the CUNY Central Institutional Review Boards (IRB). In addition, she participates as a peer evaluator and team chair for the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN).
Prior to entering academia, Professor Rafferty gained clinical experience in a wide range of psychiatric/mental health nursing settings, including St. Luke's-Roosevelt's (now Mount Sinai West) innovative community-based programs and the St. Francis Residence, a residential care model for the chronically mentally ill homeless. Outside of work, she engaged in political advocacy as a member of the Board of Directors of the Coalition for the Homeless (Coalition) and the founder and chair of its Health Committee.
Over the course of her career Dr. Rafferty has written a number of articles in nursing and other journals and textbook chapters, edited the Coalition's Shelter Workers' Handbook and submitted Congressional testimony. Dr. Rafferty is a Fellow in the New York Academy of Medicine. She is also the recipient of various awards and honors, including the Circle of Mercy Award from Mercy Center, Inc, a community-based resource in the South Bronx, the New York State Bar Association Courts and Community Award and a National Institute of Mental Health Traineeship.