Sandra DeBella Bodley, RN, EdD
Emeritus Professor of Nursing
email: DeBella@sonoma.edu
Brief biography
I received my BSN from the University of San
Francisco, my MSN in Community Health
from San Jose State University, and my Ed.D. from the University
of San Francisco School of Education in Organization & Leadership with
an area of interest in Health Care Policy and Nurses' Participation in Health
Care Planning and Policy Development at the Local, State and National Level.
I joined the SSU nursing faculty in 1975; my clinical areas are community
health nursing with special interests in rural health, cultural diversity and service learning. I
served as department chair from 1989 through 1996 when the department added the
basic baccalaureate program. I retired in 2004 after serving as interim
Director of Nursing at Santa Rosa Junior
College for a year. I have continued to teach on
an as-needed basis at SSU, primarily in the graduate program for nursing
education. I do educational consulting for nursing programs in California and
in 2008 became the project director for a two-year grant through the California
Community Colleges for a collaborative
effort among the five community colleges in Sonoma State’s service
area and the department of nursing to provide an ADN-MSN program.
I’m a healthcare activist. I have served on many boards and committees
in Sonoma County,
including the Sonoma County Health Alliance in 2000, the North Bay Hospital
Council, the Sutter Medical
Center board of trustees for 10
years, and the Northern California
Center for Well-Being board of directors.
I've a 30-year-old son and two step-daughters, and I'm the proud grandmother
of five -- Elizabeth (16), Jamie (13), Rebecca (10), Isabella (9), and Colton
Jack (7).
Our family lost our niece Deora Bodley in the
crash of United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania
on 9/11.We have become involved with an organization called September Eleventh Families for
Peaceful Tomorrows.
Since retiring, I have enjoyed traveling with my husband. We’ve been
to South America, Australia
and Africa, and are planning a trip to China
and Tibet. We
are active supporters of the Cheetah
Conservation Fund in Namibia.
I have also taken SSU students to Mexico
at intersession with Dr. Carole Heath in 2007 (Guadalajara)
and 2008 (Monterrey). I’m
still active in our local chapter of Sigma Theta Tau
(Lambda Gamma) and looking forward to our chapter’s 20th
anniversary soon.
Summer 2009
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