Dyanne D. Affonso, PhD, RN, FAAN, is Honorary President, Centre of Excellence, OPI (Ordine delle Professioni Infermieristiche di ROMA) and Professor Emerita & Former Dean, University of Toronto.

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Dyanne D. Affonso stands as a towering figure in global nursing, public health, and academic leadership. With a career spanning over five decades, Dr. Affonso has been a transformative force in nursing science, social justice, and health care leadership, leaving an indelible mark across continents and generations of nurses.

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Born and raised in Hawaii, Dr. Affonso’s work focused on cultural based care models for Hawaii’s multi-ethnic population. Her values, embodied in the Hawaiian concept of Pono (righteousness, justice), inspired her development of the Malama (which means caring) Community Health Program, a pioneering model addressing disparities in maternal and child health care among Native Hawaiian, Japanese, Filipino, and other multi-ethnic underserved women in Hawaii. Cited in the 1996 Senate appropriations bill by the office of Senator Daniel Inouye, this program’s innovative use of cultural understanding and community engagement was an exemplar for future Health Resources and Services Administration and National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded nursing and health initiatives. She continued this focus in her work at other sites, including Hispanic women in Omaha, Nebraska and at the University of Toronto, where she supported the health of First Nations people. Her Malama work has been integrated into nursing practice in indigenous communities in British Columbia, Canada, validating traditional health knowledge through partnership with western scientific approaches to healing.

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Dr. Affonso’s contributions have had a global impact. She has held prestigious academic appointments, including Dean and Professor at the University of Toronto, where she introduced Patient Safety Science and created the university’s first interdisciplinary Patient Safety Research Cluster. Her leadership rallied over $650,000 in joint funding that sparked research funding nationally and contributed to the establishment of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute. She was instrumental in highlighting the vital role of nurses during the SARS epidemic in Toronto, advocating for better employment conditions that influenced national health workforce policy.

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Extending her international reach, Dr. Affonso played a pivotal role in the visionary groundwork to establish and collaboratively lead Centers of Excellence for Nursing Scholarship in Italy, Ireland, and Albania, fostering leadership, research, and clinical practice innovations. These centers, including one that evolved into a World Health Organization Collaborating Center in Ireland, have elevated nursing to critical roles in health policy and workforce development across Europe and beyond. Her mentorship has produced a new generation of nurse leaders, some of whom now lead national nursing organizations and global health initiatives.

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An early advocate for women’s mental health, Dr. Affonso conducted groundbreaking research on postpartum depression, which led to its recognition as a women’s health priority by the NIH. Her studies laid the foundation for current screening protocols in primary care settings and underscored the importance of nursing-led behavioral health interventions. Throughout her career, she has secured and led over $18 million in research and training grants, reviewed for NIH and the National Academy of Medicine, and has served as a key advisor on health disparities, women’s health, and cultural literacy.

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Dr. Affonso has had a storied academic career. She served as the Dean of Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and as a nursing professor at the University of Arizona, University of California San Francisco, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and other institutions. Dr. Affonso earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona, a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Washington, and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Hawaii. She was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 1984. Dr. Affonso’s work is a testament to nursing’s power to advance health and humanity.

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