May Wykle
May Wykle, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N.
May L. Wykle, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., is Dean and Florence Cellar Professor of Nursing at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. She is the recent past President of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Dr. Wykle served on the advisory board for the Johnson & Johnson national "Campaign for Nursing's Future," which helped address the current nursing shortage with several initiatives aimed at recruiting new nurses and retaining current nurses. She has been a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University Faculty since 1969. Since 1988, she has served as Director of the University Center on Aging and Health.
Dr. Wykle has completed extensive research projects in areas such as geriatric mental health, family caregiving, minority caregivers, and caring for patients with dementia. She has initiated educational programs internationally in Europe, Africa and Asia and served as visiting professor and a visiting scholar at various institutions around the world. More recently, she completed an appointment as the first "Pope Eminent Scholar" at the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Human Development at Georgia Southwestern State University.
Dr. Wykle is recognized nationally as an expert in the field of aging adults. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the Gerontological Society of America, a former Director of a Robert Wood Johnson Teaching Nursing Home Project, and a recipient of a Geriatric Mental Health Academic Award from the National Institute of Mental Health. In 1986, she participated in a study commissioned by Congress of the nation's nursing homes and was named to the White House Conference on Aging in 1993. She is a member of the National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Aging Research Review Committee, and the Geriatric/Gerontology Advisory Committee for the Veterans Administration. She was recently appointed by the National Institutes of Health to the Advisory Board of the Fogarty International Center. In April 2003, she was appointed by Governor Robert Taft to the Ohio Commission on Minority Health.
Among her numerous honors and awards are Case's 1989 John S. Diekhoff Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching, a Merit Award from the Cleveland Council of Black Nurses, and the 2000 Gerontological Nursing Research Award from the Gerontological Society of America. Dr. Wykle was named Outstanding Researcher in the State of Ohio by the Ohio Research Council on Aging and the Ohio Network of Education Consultants in the Field of Aging. In 2001, she received the Gerontological Nursing Research Award from the Midwest Nursing Research Society and John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing and the Outstanding Undergraduate Alumni Award from Case Western Reserve University. In 2002 she received the Ethelrine Shaw-Nickerson Award from the Ohio Nurses Association and the Golden Achievement Award in the Field of Health from the Golden Age Centers of Cleveland; in 2003 she was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Black Nurses Association. In May 2004, Dr. Wykle received the Frank and Dorothy Humel Hovorka Award, which recognizes Case Western faculty members whose exceptional achievements in teaching, research, and scholarly service benefit the community, nation, and the world. She was awarded with a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from the Council of Black Nurses Hall of Fame that same year. In 2005, she was recognized with the YWCA Women of Professional Excellence. A recent book, Serving Minority Elders in the 21st Century earned the American Journal of Nursing's Book of the Year Award in 2000, and Successful Aging Through the Life Span was released in November 2005 by Springer Publishing.
Most recently, Dr. Wykle was honored with the establishment of the May L. Wykle Professorship. It was the first professorship named for an African-American at Case Western Reserve University.