Chancellor honors nursing professor with teaching award

University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher selected Dr. Tammy Haley of Bradford as a recipient of the 2019 Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award.

Haley, an assistant professor of nursing, is the director of nursing and radiological sciences at Pitt-Bradford.

She was one of five faculty members university wide this year to receive this award, which recognizes teaching excellence by members of the University of Pittsburgh faculty.

Haley and other awardees were publicly recognized at the 2019 University of Pittsburgh Honors Convocation Friday in Pittsburgh.

Gallagher cited Haley's work as co-director of the Appalachian Teaching Project as providing students the chance to be involved in community-based research projects.

“Your integration of the Appalachian Teaching Project into the nursing curriculum has increased students' exposure to real-life nursing research,” he wrote.

Haley co-directs the Appalachian Teaching Project with Dr. Lisa Fiorentino, a now-retired associate professor of nursing. The pair have led a succession of Bachelor of Science in Nursing students through a three-year study of vaccination access in the Bradford area.

Each December, the students have traveled to Washington, D.C., to present their findings to the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Gallagher also cited students' positive student and peer evaluations of her teaching, which included expansive comments of praise and recognition.

Haley was previously recognized by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health with the 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award for Teaching and Dissemination; by former Pitt-Bradford president Dr. Livingston Alexander with the 2016 President's Award for Excellence in Teaching, Scholarship and Service; and by fellow members of the Pitt-Bradford faculty with the 2012 Chairs' Faculty Teaching Award.

She has been teaching at Pitt-Bradford since 2003. Before she began teaching at Pitt-Bradford, she worked as a registered nurse and nurse practitioner in the region. In 2012, she earned her doctorate in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh, where she also earned a Master of Public Health degree in 2013.

Haley is the third faculty member to have been honored by the chancellor for teaching. Previous recipients were Dr. Richard Frederick, professor of history, and Dr. Lauren Yaich, associate professor of biology.