Dr. Melody R. Wilkinson is a nationally and internationally recognized nurse practitioner educator, clinician, scholar, and academic leader whose work advances health equity, rural health, infectious disease care, community-engaged scholarship, and graduate nursing education. An expert in competency-based nurse practitioner education, she develops innovative experiential and community-engaged approaches that prepare advanced practice nurses to lead, practice, and improve health in complex and underserved environments.
Dr. Wilkinson is a Professor at Georgetown University School of Nursing, where her teaching spans evidence-based practice, organizational leadership, health policy and advocacy, and advanced nursing practice. Across these areas, she emphasizes the translation of evidence into practice, leadership for systems change, and preparation of nurses to influence practice, organizations, communities, and health policy. She previously served as Director of Curriculum and Learning (2022–2023) and Family Nurse Practitioner Program Director (2015–2020) and continues to provide leadership in curriculum innovation and graduate nursing education.
With more than 27 years of experience as a nurse practitioner, Dr. Wilkinson maintains an active clinical practice in HIV care. She served as a COVID-19 Clinical Consultant with the CDC Foundation, supporting West Virginia’s statewide pandemic response. She also contributed to clinical and public health efforts responding to an HIV outbreak associated with injection drug use in rural Appalachia. Her clinical expertise includes HIV prevention and treatment, infectious diseases, rural health, and emerging public health challenges.
Dr. Wilkinson’s scholarship focuses on community-engaged and experiential education, critical consciousness, professional formation, rural health, and health equity. For nearly a decade, she has developed and sustained academic-community partnerships in rural Appalachia that integrate graduate nursing education, community engagement, and scholarship around community-identified priorities. Her work examines how these experiences shape learners, educators, and communities and has resulted in peer-reviewed publications, funded initiatives, and national and international presentations. This body of scholarship contributes to a growing understanding of how community engagement, reflection, and experiential learning can foster professional formation and prepare nurses to advance health equity.
Dr. Wilkinson is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. She earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Duke University, Master of Science in Nursing from Vanderbilt University, and Bachelor of Science in Nursing from West Virginia University.
Academic Appointment(s)
- Primary
- Professor, SON - Nursing Academic Department