Clare Whitney, PhD, MBE, RN, an Assistant Professor at the Stony Brook University School of Nursing, has been chosen as a 2025 Macy Faculty Scholar. This national program seeks to identify and nurture early-career educators in nursing and medicine to enhance their leadership skills.
Dr. Whitney is the first from Stony Brook to receive this honor and joins four other educators in the 2025 class. The Macy Scholars are tasked with developing projects while gaining access to professional development programs, formal mentoring, and educational opportunities. The program commences on July 1.
Her project focuses on the Alda Healthcare Experience for Nursing (AHE-N), which is an interprofessional communication skills training aimed at nurses. Dr. Whitney plans to develop, implement, and evaluate this initiative with the goal of advancing sustainable solutions for burnout prevention and improving interprofessional collaboration among student nurses.
At Stony Brook, her research targets reducing burnout and enhancing the well-being of healthcare professionals through an interdisciplinary research program that addresses relational and ethical challenges faced by the healthcare workforce.
“This is an exciting honor and a meaningful recognition of my passion for advancing nursing education,” Dr. Whitney stated. “As I continue to grow in my career, this will allow me to collaborate with and receive mentorship from other educators and leaders, strengthening my ability to educate the next generation of nurses and hopefully make a lasting difference in the profession.”
School of Nursing Dean Patricia Bruckenthal expressed pride in Dr. Whitney's selection: “Given her expertise in bioethics and health communication science, she will no doubt make an impact on promoting collaboration among health professionals and preparing future nurse leaders to deliver ethical patient-centered care in our complex healthcare environment.”
In addition to her role at the School of Nursing, Dr. Whitney serves as an affiliated faculty member at the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics within Stony Brook’s Renaissance School of Medicine.
Dr. Holly J. Humphrey, President of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation—which sponsors the program—remarked on Dr. Whitney's accomplishments: “As an early career faculty member, Dr. Whitney has an impressive body of scholarship related to addressing relational and ethical issues among health professionals.”