Dr. Shirley Hutchinson

Shirley Hutchinson Dr.PH, RN

May 31, 1940 – September 28, 2011

After completing her secondary education in 1958 at Emmett Scott High School, Shirley furthered her education by attending Prairie View A & M University where she received a Bachelor of Science Degree (B.S.) in Nursing in 1962. She immediately began working as a professional registered nurse and employed as a staff nurse, charge nurse and head nurse at Jefferson Davis Hospital/Ben Taub County Hospital System, Hermann Hospital and Methodist Hospital respectively.

After a few years of acute care nursing, she began her community-health nursing career as a staff nurse at the Houston Health Department where she worked for 5 years. During this time, she entered the Masters of Public Health program at the University Of Texas School Of Public Health and graduated in 1971 with a MPH degree. Upon completing her master’s degree, she joined the faculty of Texas Woman’s University where she thrived professionally for 40 years. She retired at the rank of Associate Professor in August 2010 and returned to TWU as Associate Professor Emeritus on a 50% basis in September 2010. She remained an active faculty member until her peaceful death.

During her tenure at TWU, Shirley became a master teacher of community health nursing. She taught all areas of community health, motivated students to learn and encouraged them to choose community as an area of clinical practice. She served as the lead teacher for many years and mentored faculty and students in this field. She also participated in programs to enrich the educational experiences of at-risk students.

Shirley continued her professional education while teaching fulltime and achieved the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from the University Of Texas School Of Public Health in 1997. She remained at TWU and expanded her teaching responsibilities to include graduate education in the areas of multicultural studies and the advisement of students writing professional papers and dissertations.

Shirley was very active in service to Texas Woman’s University and the College of Nursing; national, state and local communities and the nursing profession. She participated in numerous College of Nursing and University committees including academic retention and success committees, faculty recruitment and search committees, curriculum planning committees, program evaluation committees, university tenure and review committees, diversity strategic planning committee, AIDS task force, to name a few.

In the community, her role varied from her church to various community-based organizations including but not limited to membership in the Wellness committee at Brentwood Baptist Church, member of the Community Advisory committee for the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Baylor College of Medicine, member of Houston Health Department Infant Mortality Task Force, Neighborhood Centers Inc and Gulfton Community Coalition. She was a member of the Red Cross and volunteered in a variety of areas including, serving as a volunteer RN at the George R. Brown Clinic for Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Shirley was a member of the Visiting Nurses Association in earlier years however; the organization dissolved and established a foundation called the Scholarships and Grants Committee of the Healthcare and Nursing Education Foundation (Formerly Visiting Nurse Association Foundation). Shirley was a member and chaired the committee that awarded nursing students in the Houston area scholarships and grants. During various periods of her professional career, she held membership in the American Public Health Association, American Nurses Association and Sigma Theta Tau International, Beta Beta Chapter.  

Shirley made great contributions as a consultant, researcher and scholar.  She served as a consultant with the United States Department of Health and Human Services Head Start program for 31 years, traveling the country and fulfilled the roles of program reviewer, training and technical assistant, technical adviser and program evaluator. Shirley had funded research as an investigator in the area of student success and related stressors and as a co-principal investigator with a nationally recognized study on cultural heritage intervention to promote adaptation to long-term care settings. She also participated in other research endeavors with colleagues. From her research and scholarly endeavors, she published articles, contributed to textbooks and presented at local, state and national conferences.  

Her honors include nominations for Houston Center Student Government Association Leader’s Forum for Outstanding Faculty Member and Good Samaritan Foundation Excellence in Nursing Award (Instruction in an Academic Setting category). She received recognition as Texas Nurses Association, District 9 Outstanding Nurse and Sigma Theta Tau International Beta Beta Chapter-Houston Outstanding Member.