Dr. Melody R. Wilkinson is a nationally and internationally recognized nurse practitioner educator, clinician, scholar, and academic leader whose work advances health equity, community-engaged scholarship, rural health, infectious diseases, and graduate nursing education. An expert in competency-based nurse practitioner education, she leads innovative experiential and service-learning initiatives that prepare future healthcare providers to address complex health and social challenges in underserved communities.
Dr. Wilkinson has held multiple academic leadership roles at Georgetown University, including Director of Curriculum and Learning (2022–2023) and Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) Program Director (2015–2020). She teaches across the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) programs and serves in leadership roles supporting faculty development, curriculum innovation, and academic excellence.
From 2020 to 2022, Dr. Wilkinson served as a COVID-19 Clinical Consultant with the CDC Foundation, supporting West Virginia’s statewide pandemic response. During this time, she also contributed to clinical and public health efforts addressing an HIV outbreak associated with injection drug use in rural Appalachia. She maintains active clinical practice as an HIV clinician, with clinical and scholarly interests in HIV prevention and treatment, infectious diseases, and emerging public health challenges.
Her scholarship focuses on health equity, community-engaged and experiential learning, critical consciousness development, rural health, infectious diseases, and innovative educational strategies that prepare nurse practitioners to deliver culturally humble, socially accountable care. She is particularly known for developing and sustaining long-term academic-community partnerships in rural Appalachia that integrate service, scholarship, and experiential learning to address community-identified priorities while promoting student learning, leadership development, critical consciousness, and professional formation.
Dr. Wilkinson’s scholarship has resulted in peer-reviewed publications, funded educational and community-engaged initiatives, national and international presentations, and sustained partnerships that bridge academic learning with community impact. Her work examines the impact of community-engaged and experiential learning on student development, critical consciousness, leadership, health equity, and community outcomes.
Dr. Wilkinson is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) and a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (FAANP). 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