By Jennifer Lollar
Associate Professor Marisa Wilson, DNSc, MHSc, CPHIMS, RN-BC, FAMIA, FIAHSI, FAAN, passed away on January 5, 2024, following a long battle with cholangiocarcinoma.
An internationally recognized leader and board-certified informatician, Wilson’s research and practice interests were in health information technology policy, implementation, and positive patient outcomes and clinical efficiency supported by technology. She spent more than 15 years as a nurse clinician working in acute physical rehabilitation, medical-surgical and telemetry units. In addition, Wilson spent more than 25 years as an analyst, project leader and manager implementing information systems in public health and acute care settings.
She joined the UAB School of Nursing faculty in 2015 as Associate Professor and Specialty Track Coordinator of the MSN Nursing Informatics Specialty Track, and served as Interim Chair of the Department of Family, Community and Health Systems from 2019 to 2022, as well as Director of the Nursing Health Systems Leadership Pathway from 2019 until her death.
“The UAB School of Nursing will not be the same without Marisa and her leadership,” said Dean and Fay B. Ireland Endowed Chair Maria R. Shirey, PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, ANEF, FACHE, FNAP, FAAN. “Marisa fought so hard the past several years following her diagnosis, and showed all of us how a true nurse leader with resilience and an inquiring mind can tackle even the toughest challenge. She learned as much as she could about her disease, helped educate others—even presenting at the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation Annual Conference in 2022—and helped raise funds for the foundation, all to help others who came after her with the same diagnosis.”
In 2016, Wilson was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and in 2019, she was one of 10 nurses selected as inaugural Fellows of the American Medical Informatics Association. In 2020, she was elected to serve as the AMIA Nursing Informatics Working Group representative to the International Medical Informatics Association. She also served on the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education Board of Directors and received appointments to national and international bodies focused on standards in health information technology. Wilson was a member of the American Academy of Nursing Technology Working Group, which formed to support the implementation of The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education.
In 2022, she was selected by the Board of Directors of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and the Governing Directors of the Alliance for Nursing Informatics to receive the HIMSS-ANI Nursing Informatics Leadership Award, which recognizes a nursing informatics leader who demonstrates leadership qualities and works to optimize health engagements and care outcomes through information and technology.
Marisa’s career accomplishments, and heart for nursing, her colleagues and her students reached nearly every corner of the world and impacted countless lives,” Shirey said.
Prior to joining the UAB School of Nursing faculty, Wilson was an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing from 2013 to 2015 and an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing from 2004 to 2013.
She received her bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry from Notre Dame of Maryland University, her diploma in nursing from Union Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, her Master of Science in public health in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University and her Doctor of Nursing Science degree from Johns Hopkins University.
“As I reflect on Marisa’s career with the UABSON, I am blessed to have had the honor of knowing her, learning from her, and working with her,” Shirey said. “I am especially grateful to have been able to call her friend and colleague.”