Phyllis Eide receives WSU award as graduate mentor

By Cheryl Reed, Graduate School

SPOKANE, Wash. – Phyllis Eide, associate professor of nursing at Washington State University Spokane, is recipient of the WSU Graduate School Mentor Academy Award for Excellence. She has been a faculty member in the College of Nursing since 2002 and a member of the academy since 2009.

“Graduate School programs rely on faculty mentors to step up and serve students as advocates,” said Dean Bill Andrefsky. “Dr. Eide has always willingly served graduate students over the years, which is why I established this award last year. Faculty need to be recognized for their service.” Learn more at https://gradschool.wsu.edu/documents/2014/12/mentor-policy.pdf.

Graduate Mentor Academy volunteers provide an unbiased and supportive presence for graduate students during the most challenging aspects of their programs, including preliminary examinations and defenses. Mentors will collect ballots, make sure no committee member leaves during a defense and assist in creating a comfortable test environment for the student.

Eide said her presence at exams and defenses usually has a calming effect on the student, but that is not her only purpose. She also takes care of more concrete tasks.

“I always arrive early to coordinate with the chair,” she said. “At the last event, I contacted the IT department to make sure that all the technology was working correctly to prepare for electronic testing.”

Eide has been certified by American Nurses’ Credentialing Center in advanced practice nursing as a clinical nurse specialist in community health since 1992 and holds a certificate in Decision Making for Climate Change from the University of Washington (2010). Before entering academia in 1992 at University of Hawaii/Hilo, she worked in a variety of community settings including public health and vocational rehabilitation and as a migrant school nurse and associate director of Hawaii Nurses’ Association.

Her primary practice and research interests are rural health, global climate change and public health. She plans to use the Graduate Mentor Academy award to fund new research on climate change.

 

News media contact:
Cheryl Reed, WSU Graduate School communications, 509-335-7177, cheryl.reed@wsu.edu