Bette Keltner
The
following article was published in the Winter 2000
issue of
Winds of Change,
shortly after Dr. Bette Keltner became Dean of Georgetown
University School of Nursing. Since that time, under
Keltner's effective leadership, the School of Nursing has
become the School of Nursing and Health
Studies.
In addition to nursing, there are departments in health
systems administration, human science and international
health. Keltner has recruited well-regarded scholars and
greatly increased the school's portfolio. Keltner has
also overseen significant improvements in the school's
facilities. Since nursing is now only 25 percent of the
focus of the school, Keltner's leadership is primarily
in health care. The chair of the department of nursing
provides most of the leadership in nursing.
Dean of Georgetown University School of
Nursing
In August 1999, Bette Rusk Keltner, Cherokee, PhD, RN, was
named dean of the prestigious Georgetown School of Nursing.
She is one of the first American Indians to serve as dean
of a nursing school. What path did Dr. Keltner take on her
way to this position of great honor and responsibility? How
has her path been linked to her Indian roots?
In high school Keltner did well in the sciences, but she
did not have help in choosing and pursuing a career. The
local junior college catalog was her “map” which led her to
nursing. “I didn’t have aspirations at that point to go
into a bachelor’s program or a PhD program or be a vice
president or be a dean,” says Keltner.
After being licensed as a registered nurse and practicing
for a few years, Keltner made the difficult decision to
leave her home in the San Francisco Bay area and pursue her
bachelor's of science (BS) degree in nursing at California
State University in Fresno. “It was a couple of hours away,
but it felt very far because I had never been far away from
home. Considering how much I’ve traveled now, that seems
funny. But then it was like going to a different world.”
Keltner received her BS, worked as a hospital staff nurse,
earned her master's of science in public health at
California State University, and then begin working as a
public health nurse. During this time she gave birth to two
daughters, so she had the added responsibilities of a young
mother.
Keltner’s academic career started in 1981 when she joined
the California State College as assistant professor. A few
years later she began her studies at the University of
Texas, which awarded her a PhD in 1985. By then she was the
mother of three children and had begun doing research,
writing scholarly papers, and making presentations in areas
that she has continued to pursue, including child,
maternal, and family health and the special issues of
mothers and children with developmental disabilities. These
interests, she says, were kindled while she was working
with families as a public health nurse.
“Developmental disability and poverty often go hand in
hand,” she says. “It’s like a double whammy, and it
perpetuates itself intergenerationally. When you have high
rates of disability, particularly mental disabilities, it’s
hard to pass on the strengths and vibrancy of a culture.
People with these disabilities can teach important lessons
of patience and reality but, for example, they won’t
remember the historical stories and legends that serve as
guides.”
While developmental disabilities affect people from all
backgrounds, Keltner says that such disabilities “are
over-represented among families who have been deprived for
generations of basic needs”. Indian reservations are the
most economically impoverished areas in the United States.
While Indians have “impressive reservoirs of strength” and
have coped in the face of great adversity, “they have
endured high rates of disorders associated with social
stress”.
In 1990 Keltner returned to California State University
where in 1990 she was promoted to full professor with
tenure. For one year she served as Acting Associate Dean of
Graduate Studies and Research. Then in 1994 she became a
professor in the School of Public Health at the University
of Alabama in Birmingham where she served as Associate
Director of Applied Research.
Keltner continued examining the relationship between
cultural factors and health, and she continued paying
special attention to the challenges facing Indian people.
This is reflected in a $1,598,000 grant from the National
Institutes of Health for a project entitled “American
Indian Families and Adaptation.” It is also reflected in
her active involvement in the National Alaska Native
American Nurses Association. For the past three years,
Keltner has been president of this organization that she
calls a “jewel”.
Keltner’s career path has not been linear. In 1997 she
became the Assistant Vice President of Administration,
Medical and Health Services at Honda of America in Ohio. “I
used to say that you never know where a public health nurse
will end up,” says Keltner. “I was used to working in
migrant camps and going into clinics and schools. Then I
ended up in a company with hard hats and steel-toed shoes.
Even that surprised me.”
Now as Dean of Georgetown’s School of Nursing, Keltner
continues her advocacy of the underserved. She feels that
nurses have unique opportunities to help design
cost-effective, efficient ways of providing high-quality
care to all people. Towards that end, she says, “I hope I
can help the nursing school grow in its responsibilities to
educate nurses and to grow a good research program that
will make a difference.”
Advice
What is Keltner’s advice to readers who want to consider a
career in nursing? “Nursing can provide a lifetime of
challenge and opportunity, but as with any other path, you
need to do your very best and to give back to the people
who have brought you to this place.
“Consider the many opportunities that are available for
nurses, she recommends. “Within the scope of a single
nurse’s practice, you can do wonderful things, but you’re
limited to just those people that you physically meet. If
one has a position in education or policy or
administration, particularly if it’s in a domain that
charts priorities or channels funding streams, the impact
that you can have can be much greater.”
Keltner recommends thinking big. She admits that as a young
woman, “I probably would have fled if I had thought about
myself giving speeches in front of large groups or working
as a vice president or a dean.” But with each job that she
did well, she built her own self-confidence. And others,
who respected and admired her work, gave her new challenges
and opportunities. “When we are 17 there are lots of things
that we can’t imagine doing that actually we wind up doing
pretty well.”
For readers who want to consider going into leadership
positions in nursing and health care, Dr. Keltner
recommends going to an elite school, such as Georgetown,
“where students are expected to go on to do exceptional
things” and where there is an infrastructure that opens
doors to the best graduate schools and to high-level jobs.
Dr. Keltner has been and continues to be a leader in health
care and health professions education. She is an excellent
role model for people who are willing to take risks and to
pursue worthy goals.
This
article was originally published in the Winter 2000
issue of
Winds of Change. (The cover
artist is Ben Shorty, Navajo.)