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Consensus-Building
Change-Maker   

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"Even though I know I differ in political views, her attitude to go about having difficult conversations is one to take as an example for Congress and the entire world.
 
I have never met someone so willing to quietly listen to opposing political views from ones own and be so respectful and polite."
What UVA Students Say
About
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Photo by Sarah Cramer Shields

Curriculum Vitae

 

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Kimberly D. Acquaviva, PhD, MSW, CSE, FNAP is the Betty Norman Norris Endowed Professor at the University of Virginia School of Nursing as well as a Provost's Office Faculty Fellow. Before she was recruited to UVA in August 2019, she spent fifteen years as a faculty member at the George Washington University School of Nursing and the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. During her time at GW, she served as both founding faculty and the inaugural Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the School of Nursing.  

 

A year and a half after she published LGBTQ-Inclusive Hospice & Palliative Care: A Practical Guide to Transforming Professional Practice in 2017, Kim learned that her wife Kathy had ovarian cancer. Kim and Kathy spent the next six months sharing their experiences via social media and giving people a sense of what it's like to be living while dying.   Shortly after Kathy died in August 2019, a New Yorker documentary film was made about Kim, Kathy, and their son Greyson.

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Her new book, The Handbook of LGBTQIA-Inclusive Hospice & Palliative Care, was published by Columbia University Press in October 2023.  

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Dr. Acquaviva has a Ph.D. in Human Sexuality Education from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, an M.S.W. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania College of Arts and Sciences. She is an AASECT-Certified Sexuality Educator.

 

 

About

Books

Books
The cover of a book titled "The Handbook of LGBTQIA-Inclusive Hospice and Palliative Care"
Cover of a book titled "LGBTQ-Inclusive Hospice and Palliative Care"

 

Select Media

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New Yorker Magazine documentary: “Documenting Death.” Film by Sara Joe Wolansky. June 23, 2021. https://youtu.be/1i-TvqmjsBw

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Watson, Douglas. (2021, June 23). “What’s it like to be dying?” https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/what-is-it-like-to-be-dying

 

Prendergast, John. “Holding and Letting Go.” The Pennsylvania Gazette, 25 Feb. 2020, http://thepenngazette.com/holding-and-letting-go/.

 

Zeitlin, Dave. Finding Life in Death. 24 Feb. 2020, http://thepenngazette.com/finding-life-in-death/.

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Stripling, Jack. “Death Is This Professor's Life's Work. When It Hit Close to Home, She Invited Everyone to Watch.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 Aug. 2019, www.chronicle.com/article/Death-Is-This-Professor-s/246904.

 

Aleccia, JoNel. “Kathy Brandt, A Hospice Expert Who Invited The World Into Her Own Last Days With Cancer, Dies.” Kaiser Health News, 5 Aug. 2019, http://khn.org/news/until-her-last-breath-hospice-expert-live-tweets-about-her-death-to-teach-others/.  â€‹

 

“Palliative care power couple faces cancer at home” (NBC Online). Article by JoNel Alecia. May 15, 2019. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/palliative-care-power-couple-faces-cancer-home-n1005516

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Select Media

As Featured In

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As Featured In

 

Course Evaluations

My primary responsibility as a faculty member is to the students I teach – and by extension, to the patients and families those students will ultimately care for. Students are and will always be the primary reason for my existence as a professor – and for my School's existence as an institution of higher learning. Toward this end, I share my course evaluations publicly so that students and colleagues alike can see the quality of my teaching. Click on the name of a course to open the corresponding course evaluation.

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University of Virginia School of Nursing​

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2024 - Spring          NUCO 4056: Introduction to Health Policy

2024 - Spring          NURS 4951: Distinguished Majors Seminar II

2024 - Summer       GNUR 6046: Health Policy

2023 - Fall               GNUR 6056: Health Policy

2023 - Fall               NURS 4950: Distinguished Majors Seminar I

2023 - Summer       GNUR 6056: Health Policy

2023 - Spring          GNUR 6056: Health Policy

2023 - Spring          NUCO 4056: Introduction to Health Policy

2022 - Spring          NURS 4951: Distinguished Majors Seminar II​

2022 - Spring          GNUR 6056: Health Policy

2022 - Spring          NUCO 4056: Introduction to Health Policy

2022 - Spring          NURS 4951: Distinguished Majors Seminar II

2022 - Summer       GNUR 6056: Health Policy: Local to Global 

2022 - Fall               GNUR 6056: Health Policy: Local to Global

2022 - Fall               NURS 4950: Distinguished Majors Seminar I

2021 - J-Term          NUCO 4559: Sex & Intimacy in the Time of COVID-19

2021 - Spring          GNUR 6056: Health Policy: Local to Global

2021 - Spring          NUCO 4056: Introduction to Health Policy

2021 - Spring          NURS 4951: Distinguished Majors Seminar II

2021 - Fall                GNUR 6056: Health Policy: Local to Global

2021 - Fall                NURS 4950: Distinguished Majors Seminar I

​2020 - Spring          GNUR 6056: Health Policy: Local to Global

2020 - Spring          NUCO 4056: Introduction to Health Policy

2020 - Spring          NURS 4951: Distinguished Majors Seminar II

2020 - Summer       GNUR 6056: Health Policy: Local to Global

2020 - Fall               GNUR 6056: Health Policy: Local to Global

2020 - Fall               NURS 4950: Distinguished Majors Seminar I

​2019 - Fall               GNUR 6056: Health Policy: Local to Global

2019 - Fall               NURS 4950: Distinguished Majors Seminar I

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George Washington University

2018 - Spring          NURS 6207 DE: Evidence-Based Practice

2018 - Spring          NURS 6207 DE6: Evidence-Based Practice

2018 - Summer       NURS 6205: Health Policy, Quality, and Political Processes

2017 - Spring          NURS 6207: Evidence-Based Practice 

2017 - Fall               NURS 6207: Evidence-Based Practice

​2016 - Fall               NURS 6207 DE2: Evidence-Based Practice

2016 - Fall               NURS 6207 DE8: Evidence-Based Practice

​​2015 - Spring          NURS 6207: Evidence-Based Practice

2015 - Summer       NURS 8407: Grant Writing

2015 - Fall               NURS 6207: Evidence-Based Practice

2014 - Spring          NURS 6202: Population Health

2014 - Summer       NURS 8407: Grant Writing​

2013 - Spring          NURS 6202: Population Health

2013 - Summer       NURS 8407: Grant Writing

2013 - Fall               NURS 6270: Intro to Research

2012 - Spring          NURS 6202 - DE5: Population Health

2012 - Spring          NURS 6202 - DE: Population Health

2012 - Summer       NURS 8407: Grant Writing

2012 - Fall               NURS 6270: Intro to Research

2011 - Spring          NURS 6202: Population Health

2011 - Summer       NURS 8407: Grant Writing

2011 - Fall               NURS 6270: Intro to Research

​2010 - Spring          NURS 8498: Research Project Proposal

2010 - Summer       NURS 8407: Grant Writing

2010 - Fall               NURS 6270: Intro to Research

2009 - Spring          ELC 203: The Business of Dying

2009 - Summer       NURS 8407: Grant Writing

2009 - Fall               NURS 8403: Translating Research Into Practice

2008 - Fall               NURS 8403: Translating Research Into Practice

2007 - Spring          ELC 203: The Business of Dying

2007 - Fall               HSCI 270: Intro to Research 

2006 - Spring          ELC 203: The Business of Dying

2006 - Fall               HSCI 270: Intro to Research (no eval on file)

        

 

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Course Evaluations
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Photo by Sarah Cramer Shields

Free Expression & Free Inquiry

 

Both as an educator and a citizen, I'm committed to fostering free expression and free inquiry in the classroom. In fact, I consider that commitment to be a core component -- perhaps even the core component -- of my work as an educator.  The following is an excerpt froUVA’s Statement on Free Expression and Free Inquiry:

 

“…the educational endeavor for students requires freedom to speak, write, inquire, listen, challenge, and learn, including through exposure to a range of ideas and cultivation of the tools of critical thinking and engagement. These tools are vital not only to students’ personal intellectual development but also to their futures as citizen leaders equipped to assess contending arguments and to contribute to societal progress. For all of these reasons, expression of ideas should be given the widest possible latitude.”


Every semester, I strive to get a 100% response rate on student course evaluations. Why?  Because, as UVA's Statement on Free Expression and Free Inquiry reminds us, "All views, beliefs, and perspectives deserve to be articulated and heard free from interference."  On my website in the section above, you can download and read course evaluation summaries -- including all of the student comments -- for every course I've taught since 2006.  I've compiled relevant comments from my UVA course evaluations into this PDF so that you can get a sense of how students experience the classroom environment in the courses I teach:

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Free Expression and Free Inquiry
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Free Resources

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Workbook for The Handbook of LGBTQIA-Inclusive Hospice & Palliative Care 

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Generative AI in Nursing: A Collection of Resources for Faculty. A gallery of resources compiled by K. Acquaviva at the request of UVA's Center for Teaching Excellence.

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Free Resources
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