Elena O. Siegel, Ph.D., R.N.

Elena O. Siegel is an assistant professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis and a 2011 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar. As a member of the school’s founding faculty, Siegel develops education programs, teaches and conducts research in the area of health systems.

She mentors Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership Graduate Group students to develop the systems and business acumen necessary for nursing leadership and research in complex health-care environments. Her goals are to prepare students as leaders of change and to improve the organization, financing and delivery of health care. Her research —positioned at the intersection of academia, practice and policy—focuses on organizational and workforce capacity to improve the quality and value of long-term care. Her current study examines the ways in which nursing home leaders make decisions about which quality improvement initiatives their organizations will adopt and the organizational and leadership factors that contribute to successful implementation and sustainability of those initiatives.  Siegel’s other research projects focus on: expectations for communication between nurses and unlicensed assistive personnel; the nurse’s role as supervisor of unlicensed assistive personnel; nursing home administrator education, training, and experience; and administrative and management aspects of the director of nursing position.

Before coming to the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, Siegel was an assistant professor at Oregon Health and Science University School of Nursing. While at Oregon Health and Science University School of Nursing, she was involved in the curriculum development of two Doctor of Nursing Practice courses–Health Systems: Organizations and Change and Applied Health Care Economics and Finance.  At OHSU, she was also named as a Claire M. Fagin Postdoctoral Fellow, funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity program and Atlantic Philanthropies.

Siegel earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and accounting from California State University, Northridge, in 1980 and worked for several years as a certified public accountant and controller before transitioning to a nursing career. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2002 and went on to receive both a Master of Nursing in 2003 and Doctor of Philosophy in 2006, all from the University of Washington School of Nursing.

Blending skills in nursing, health-care systems, business and finance, Siegel is committed to an interdisciplinary and interprofessional approach to nursing education. Currently, Siegel teaches core courses the Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership Graduate Program, including a doctoral seminar and Implementation Science.

Siegel is the recipient of several scholarships, including de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging and Hartford Foundation scholarships for her doctoral and master’s degree research. Siegel has been published in The Gerontologist, Journal of Gerontological Nursing, and Nursing Outlook.

Contact Information: Phone: (916) 703-5177 | E-mail: Elena.Siegel@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu