Mary E. Foley, PhD, RN, FAAN
Clinical Professor, UCSF School of Nursing
Director, Center for Nursing Research and Innovation
Assistant Director for the Master’s Entry Program in Nursing
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
San Francisco, CA

Mary Foley is a Clinical Professor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Nursing and is the Director in the Center for Nursing Research and Innovation at UCSF. She is the Assistant Director for the Master’s Entry Program in Nursing at UCSF and teaches in the Masters in Health Administration and Interprofessional Leadership (MS-HAIL) course at UCSF. Mary worked with the Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes (CALNOC) since 2004 and in January 2017 she will serve as Chairperson of the CALNOC Board of Directors. Mary is past president of the American Nurses Association and the National Student Nurses Association. She was a nurse for 19 years at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, where she worked as a staff nurse, Director of Nursing, and Safety Officer.

A registered nurse for 43 years, Foley continues to teach, write and lecture, promoting safe care for workers and patients nationally and internationally. She served on the board of the National Patient Safety Foundation, an advisor to the Partnership for Patient Safety (p4ps) and is a member of the TMIT Patient and Family panel. Since 2012, she has worked with Karen Curtiss to improve family involvement in patient safety. She is a nursing consultant to “Safe and Sound in the Hospital” and Partner Health and she and Karen were faculty members in the Hospital Quality Institute HEN2.0 initiative in CA. She is proud of her membership and leadership on behalf of the Nursing Section of GLMA.

In November 2011 she became Nursing Co-Lead for the IOM California Action Coalition and has developed a special interest in Academic Progression. She is Co-Chair of the HealthImpact and California Action Coalition Advisory Council. She was served on the board of CGFNS International and was Chairperson of the Safe in Common Campaign to address sharps injuries. Mary leads an ongoing Infection Control program for hospitals in coordination with Rwanda health leaders and taught with a delegation at two rural hospitals in Rwanda in August 2015 and will be returning in 2017

Foley received her nursing diploma in 1973 from New England Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing, her BSN in 1976 from Boston University School of Nursing in Massachusetts, and her Master’s of Science in Nursing Administration and Occupational Health from UCSF in 1994. She received her Ph.D. in Nursing from UCSF 2010 and was elected as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2013.

Previous Recipient
Back to Prior Recipients Page
Next Recipient