Callista Roy (1939 - )
Personal and Professional Background:
•Sister Callista Roy wa born in Los Angeles, California, in 1939. At 14 years old, she began her work as a pantry girl in a large general hospital. She worked her way up to a maid then a nurse’s aide. After some soul searching, she decided to enter a religious order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet and has been a member for more than 40 years (Nursing Information January 23, 2012)
Professional Background
•Professor and Nurse Theorist at the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College, where she teaches doctoral, master’s and undergraduate students.
•Early education completing a B.A. from Mount Saint Mary’s College in Los Angeles
•Continuing education earning a M.S. and M.A.
in pediatric nursing and sociology, and Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles
•Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco
•Best known for her work on the Roy Adaptation Model of Nursing.
•Current clinical research is an intervention study to involve lay study partners in cognitive recovery of patients with mild head injury.
•Scholarly work in conceptualizing and measuring coping and developing the philosophical basis for the adaptation mode for the epistemology of nursing.
•Named a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing and the Massachusetts Registered Nurses Association (William, 2012)