by Nancy Wise
Julia Phillippi, PhD, CNM, assistant professor of Nursing, has been named academic director of the Nurse-Midwifery program at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. She will also co-direct the Nurse-Midwifery/Family Nurse Practitioner dual-focus specialty with Courtney Pitts, DNP, FNP academic director.
The Nurse-Midwifery specialty is one of the school’s most competitive programs and is currently ranked as the No. 1 nurse-midwifery program in the country, according to the most recent U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools list.
“Julia has outstanding experience as a nurse-midwifery leader, researcher and health care provider. She is also a brilliant educator and loves teaching,” said Mavis Schorn, PhD, CNM, senior associate dean for Academics. “Fortunately for us, she was interested in using all those strengths on behalf of our nurse-midwifery program.”
A nurse-midwife for two decades, Phillippi served as lecturer and adjunct clinical faculty at VUSN before joining the school full time in 2005. In addition to teaching in the Nurse-Midwifery program, she has taught in Vanderbilt’s PhD and DNP programs. She is certified as a nurse-midwife and provides intrapartum care at the Vanderbilt Nurse-Midwifery faculty practice at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Phillippi has published extensively in the area of midwifery and nursing education, and most recently, regarding best practices for recruitment of pregnant women for research studies. She has a K08 Career Development Award from the U.S. Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality to conduct a randomized trial regarding team-based maternity care.
Her research interests include women’s access to prenatal care, innovative learning environments for midwifery students, interprofessional communication and midwifery care to women at risk for poor perinatal outcomes. She is on the editorial boards for the Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing and the Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health.
Phillippi earned a Master of Science in Nursing from Vanderbilt in Nurse-Midwifery and received her PhD in Nursing Science from the University of Tennessee College of Nursing. She was inducted as a fellow by the American College of Nurse-Midwives in 2013 and by the American Academy of Nursing in 2018.
Phillippi succeeds former academic director Michelle Collins, assistant professor of Nursing, who has been named associate dean for academics at Rush University College of Nursing.
