AACN HONORS RUTH WATSON
LUBIC WITH McGOVERN
LECTURESHIP AWARD
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 20, 1997 --Ruth
Watson Lubic, CNM, EdD, FAAN, from 1970 to 1995 the general
director of Maternity Center Association (MCA), has been
awarded the John P. McGovern Lectureship Award by the American
Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN).
Dr. Lubic, who currently is director of
clinical projects for MCA and in 1993 received the prestigious
fellowship of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
the so-called "genius award," was honored with
the recognition October 26 during AACN's fall semiannual
meeting in Washington, D.C.
AACN's McGovern Award is an invitational
lectureship bestowed upon individuals who have made outstanding
contributions in the health care or education arenas. The
award is named for John P. McGovern, MD, a Houston, Texas,
clinician and researcher in allergy and immunology, humanitarian,
teacher, medical historian, and philanthropist. His faculty
appointments have included posts at the Schools of Nursing
at the University of Texas at Austin and Houston.
A venerable organization dating back to 1918,
MCA focuses on the health and welfare of childbearing families,
and Dr. Lubic "put her unusual education and personal
philosophy to full use as its CEO," noted AACN President
Carole A. Anderson, PhD, RN, FAAN in presenting the award.
Dr. Lubic's vision led to the establishment of the first
demonstration freestanding Childbearing Center (CbC) in
the United States. Between 1975 and 1996, the center operated
from the MCA townhouse in New York City before being transferred
to the Elizabeth Seaton Childbearing Center and served as
a model for more than 150 centers in the United States.
Instrumental in the growth of the movement was the National
Association of Childbearing Centers (NACC) of which Dr.
Lubic was a co-founder and first president. Birthing centers
on the CbC model also have opened in Australia and in Europe.
"Dr. Lubic's most significant contributions
have come not only from her ability to link research to
demonstration projects, but from her core belief that every
professional nurse must be a teacher and a facilitator of
health," Dr. Anderson noted. "Particularly in
distressed neighborhoods, her vision of nursing and midwifery
has brought empowerment to women who, in partnership with
nurses, have acted on their own behalf and on behalf of
the health care needs of families."
Most recently, Dr. Lubic had served as an
expert consultant to Assistant Secretary for Health Philip
R. Lee, MD, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
as Visiting Professor to the King Edward Memorial Hospital
in Perth, Australia, and as Kate Hanna Visiting Professor
at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western
Reserve University.
Elected to the Institute of Medicine of the
National Academy of Sciences, she was a member of the first
official American Medical Delegation to the People's Republic
of China in 1973. Among her many honors, Dr. Lubic is a
fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, American College
of Nurse-Midwives, the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, and the Society of Applied Anthropology, was
designated by Ms. Magazine as one of the "80
Women to Watch in the 80s," and received the Rockefeller
Public Service Award by Princeton University.
In 1993, the American Nurses Association
designated Dr. Lubic as Maternal and Child Health Nurse
of the Year, and gave Honorary Recognition, its highest
award, in 1994. Dr. Lubic has served as president of the
Pan American Health and Education Fund and the American
Association for World Health. She is the co-author of the
book, Childbearing -- A Book of Choices.
Dr. Lubic received her nursing diploma from
the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, bachelor's
and master's degrees in nursing from Teachers' College,
Columbia University, and certificate in nurse-midwifery
awarded by MCA/State University of New York Downstate Medical
Center in Brooklyn. She earned her doctorate in education
from Columbia University in applied anthropology.
The American Association of Colleges
of Nursing is the national voice for university and four-year-college
education programs in nursing. Representing more than 580
member schools of nursing at public and private institutions
nationwide, AACN's educational, research, governmental advocacy,
data collection, publications, and other programs work to
establish quality standards for bachelor's- and graduate-degree
nursing education, assist deans and directors to implement
those standards, influence the nursing profession to improve
health care, and promote public support of baccalaureate
and graduate nursing education, research, and practice.
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CONTACT: Robert Rosseter
(202) 463-6930, x231
rrosseter@aacn.nche.edu
