Charlotte Wisnewski, PhD, RN, BC, CDE, CNE Associate Professor, School of Nursing
Email: cwisnews@utmb.edu
Charlotte A. Wisnewski has been a registered nurse for 50 years and a faculty member for 33 of those years. She started her nursing education at Orange Memorial Hospital in Orlando, Florida, upon graduation from high school, becoming an RN in 1968. She subsequently received her BSN from University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston (1976), MS in nursing education with a specialization in endocrinology at Texas Woman’s University (TWU) (1978), and PhD in nursing also from TWU in 1996. Nursing certifications include certified diabetes educator (CDE) from the American Association of Diabetes Educators and certified nurse educator (CNE) from the National League of Nursing.
She has worked as a staff nurse in cardiology (Melbourne, Florida); endocrinology, oncology and nurse manager (Morristown, New Jersey); ICU staff nurse (Webster, Texas).
Dr. Wisnewski came to UTMB School of Nursing in 1996 to teach in her specialty area of medical-surgical nursing and critical care nursing after 13 years of teaching in those areas of nursing at College of The Mainland. During the past 20 years, she has served as course coordinator of multiple courses including critical care, medical surgical nursing, health assessment, pathophysiology, and nursing research. Currently her teaching responsibilities include coordinator for Undergraduate Pathophysiology and Pharmacology. From 2011-2015, she was the Undergraduate Program Director, stepping down in September 2015 to return to a fulltime teaching role. As Program Director, she was part of the leadership team leading the faculty to a successful reaccreditation for 10 years (2015-2025) for the School of Nursing by the Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). Dr. Wisnewski is also herself (2011-current) a site visitor for CCNE for the accreditation of Nurse Residency Programs throughout the USA (UTMB has a nurse residency program). She is currently serving as lead coordinator for the CCNE midyear (2020) reaccreditation survey for the UTMB School of Nursing.
She is a certified diabetes educator and has been frequently called upon for education consultation from UTMB nurses and physicians. She is a frequent local speaker on diabetes subjects; she has spoken both nationally (New Orleans and Washington DC) and internationally (Italy) regarding diabetes education. In her role as a member of The American Association of Diabetes Educators, she served three years as a member of the National Research Technical Committee, reviewing research abstracts, writing short articles and briefs, and chairing the Technical Writing National Group which published a white paper for the members of the Association regarding patient education. In 2011 she was invited to write “Diabetes Mellitus” in Tucker, SB and Dauffenbach, V (2011). Nutrition and Diet Therapy for Nurses. Pearson: NY, NY. The 2nd edition (2018) which required extensive reformulation has been published as an electronic textbook. Also, two articles on Diabetes and Cardiac Disease and Diabetes and Hospital to Home Management were published in September 2017 and December 2017 respectively in The American Nurse Today, the official journal of the American Nurses Association, the official national organization for nurses in the United States.
Dr. Wisnewski was inducted into the Academy of Master Teachers (AMT) in 2011 and has the designation of Distinguished Teaching Professor. She serves on the Mentoring and Counseling Committee for AMT. She has presented several times through the work of the committee on developing an E- portfolio; most recently she has worked with other committee members to teach faculty both at UTMB, Houston, and in Austin, how to give peer feedback. In addition for AMT, she has assisted as poster judge multiple times, served as consultant to new faculty who are applying for membership, and served on the selection panel three times for new members. She is an active supporter of AMT.
Even though not an education role per se, she is very proud that she served two terms as a faculty Senator, capping that service with three years as Chair-Elect, Chair and past Chair, stepping down from this role in August 2011. In her role as Chair of Faculty Senate, she assisted in the rebuilding of faculty spirit and confidence in the role of UTMB after Hurricane Ike. In meetings at the System Level in Austin along with other UT campuses, Dr. Wisnewski and other members of the Faculty Senate Executive Board sought to promote UTMB's continuing role in education, research and service to the State of Texas as the University continued to rebuild after Hurricane Ike.
On the personal level, she is married for 50 years to Stephen who is a retired IBM electrical engineer working in the Space Program starting at Cape Canaveral upon graduation from Florida Institute of Technology. They have two adult children and two grandchildren who are 14 and 12 and live in the Washington D.C. metro area of Maryland; visits 3-4 times per year keep them as a close family unit. Other family members are in Florida.