Doctoral – PhD in Nursing

A view of the Washington Monument and other icons of the DC city skyline

About the Program

Georgetown’s PhD in Nursing Program is designed to be a full-time, campus-based, premier doctoral program for individuals who want to be leaders for change by seeking to advance the discipline and those they serve in academic, community health, health care, policy, global, and research settings. The Fall 2025 entry application cycle is open now here with an application submission deadline of December 1, 2024.

Georgetown’s PhD program will lead in creating nurse scientists who generate knowledge with ethics and health equity as its core compass, to advance health, appreciating our shared humanity.

Roberta Waite, Dean of Georgetown University School of Nursing

Program Features

Program Virtual Information Sessions

We periodically offer virtual information sessions about the Ph.D. in Nursing program features, curriculum and application procedure. The Fall 2025 entry application cycle is open now here with an application submission deadline of December 1, 2024.

Program Admissions

Application Deadlines

Submission Deadline – December 1, 2024

Decision Deadline – Mid-January 2025

Program Questions

Please direct questions about the PhD in Nursing program to PhDinNursing@georgetown.edu.

Program Leadership

Edilma L. Yearwood, PhD, PMHCNS-BC, FAAN
Interim Program Director, PhD in Nursing Program

Program Faculty

Nursing PhD students work with faculty who have expertise in multidimensional and complementary areas, including ethics, health equity, health disparities, mental health, women’s health, cardiovascular science and physiology.

Intima Alrimawi

Intima Alrimawi, PhD, MSN, MPH, BSN

Dr. Alrimawi’s research focuses on improving the quality of care for vulnerable families and children with complex health concerns or chronic diseases. Her secondary research interest is the development of nursing education to promote optimal outcomes in nursing education.


Ella Heitzler

Ella Heitzler, PhD, WHNP, FNP, RNC-OB

Dr. Heitzler’s research seeks to support healing and increase the health equity of cisgender women and transgender persons who have experienced gender-based violence. Her current work explores the sexual violence screening practices (screening rates, questions utilized to screen, barriers to screening, and facilitators of screening) of nurse practitioners, midwives, and physicians who specialize in reproductive health care.


Roxanne Mirabel-Beltran

Roxanne Mirabal-Beltran, PhD

Dr. Mirabal-Beltran studies women’s health inequities and patient-provider communication. She is particularly interested in the use of Community-Based Participatory Research to facilitate access to health and health education. Her current work partners with the Wash and Spin to Health / Washington Avanzando la Salud Hispana (W.A.S.H.) Community Advisory Board to develop a reproductive health educational intervention to roll out in DC laundromats.


Carol Taylor

Carol Taylor, PhD, RN

Dr. Taylor’s passion is making health care “work” for everyone — equity. She studies pedagogical strategies to prepare the next generation of frontline caregivers to address ethical challenges. Her research interests include clinical and organizational ethics and spiritual care. She is the primary author of all 10 editions of WolterKluwer’s “Fundamentals of Nursing: The Art and Science of Person-Centered Care.”


Sarah Vittone

Sarah Vittone, DBe, MSN, MA, RN

Dr. Vittone has more than 25 years of experience in clinical ethics consultation and is a primary consultant with the ethics consultation service of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics. Her clinical ethics interests are in complex decision-making, surrogate decision-makers, and issues at the interface of vulnerable populations and health systems.


Krista White

Krista White, PhD, RN, CCRN-K, CNE

Dr. White’s research focuses on nursing education science, mentorship, compassionate teaching, equity within education, and an inclusive learning environment that fosters student outcomes. Dr. White is an instrument developer. The “Nursing Anxiety and Self-Confidence with Clinical Decision Making” scale and has been used in approximately 250 empirical studies worldwide, and has been translated and validated in Korean and Turkish.


Edilma L Yearwood

Edilma Yearwood, PhD, PMHCNS-BC, FAAN

Dr. Yearwood, a qualitative researcher, uses community-based participatory action, ethnography and grounded theory methodologies in her research grounded in promoting and advocating for health equity. Her current grant is titled “Nurturing Child Well-Being: Educating Communities on Social Determinants of Health.” The project examines family and community dynamics and social determinants (FCDSD) — all of which impact the health and well-being of children and may result in poor health outcomes.