Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk (Class of 2020)

Bern Melnick

Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk was appointed in 2011 as dean and professor of The Ohio State University College of Nursing, associate vice president for health promotion, chief wellness officer, and professor of pediatrics and psychiatry, College of Medicine. The position of executive director, Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare, was added to her responsibilities in 2017.

Melnyk guided unprecedented growth in the College of Nursing’s student enrollment, faculty positions, and academic excellence. Her leadership strengthened the college’s standing as a top earner of grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). For six consecutive years during her tenure, the U.S. News & World Report ranked the college’s online master’s program as one of the nation’s best. Under her direction, the college’s Total Health & Wellness Clinic achieved Federally Qualified Health Center status.

Melnyk directs Buckeye Wellness Innovators and Be Well to lead wellness initiatives throughout Ohio State. She founded the One University Health and Wellness Council to drive and measure outcomes of a comprehensive wellness strategic plan for Ohio State students, employees and the surrounding community. She founded and is past president of the National Consortium for Building Healthy Academic Communities to improve population health in U.S. institutions of higher learning.

Melnyk’s leadership was instrumental in the development of free, online Million Hearts® educational modules, implementing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Million Hearts® initiative to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. She regularly offered Million Hearts® screenings on campus and across Ohio on Wellness on Wheels tours to help provide integrated physical and mental health screenings to underserved populations in six cities.

Melnyk’s career has included roles as a staff nurse, pediatric nurse practitioner, nurse educator and faculty member, research assistant, researcher, associate dean for research, dean and distinguished foundation professor of the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University, and editor of Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing. She has published over 400 professional articles and received numerous awards including Edge Runner from the American Academy of Nursing.

Melnyk received her BSN cum laude from West Virginia University in 1979, a MS in Pediatric Nursing and PNP in 1983 from University of Pittsburgh, a PhD in Clinical Nursing Research from University of Rochester in 1992, and a Post-Master’s Certificate for Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner in 2002 from the University of Rochester.