DeAnne K. Hilfinger Messias is the Graduate Director of Women's and Gender Studies and an Associate Professor of Nursing. Her research has focused on women's work and health, immigrant women, and transitions. An international community health nurse, Dr. Messias lived and worked in Brazil for over 20 years, where she directed a primary health care program on the Amazon, taught Women's Health and Community Health Nursing, and conducted research on women's health and primary health care. She has collaborated on several multinational research projects on women's health. A qualitative methodologist, she has expertise in a variety of qualitative approaches, including content analysis, grounded theory, and feminist narrative analysis.

Dr. Messias' area of teaching expertise is women's health and community health nursing. She teaches a variety of courses in Women's Studies and Nursing, including WOST 736/NURS 736 Women, Work, and Health: Global Perspectives, WOST 404 Community Activism, NURS 800 Philosophy of Nursing Science, and NURS 720 Public Health Residency. Additionally, Dr. Messias mentors both graduate and undergraduate students through her membership on dissertation, thesis, and research project committees.

Currently she is involved in several interdisciplinary, participatory research projects, including a youth empowerment evaluation study and several studies which focus on improving the cultural and linguistic capacity of health care providers and agencies in South Carolina.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 1993-1997, PhD
Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion, IN, 1987-1988, MS
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 1977-1980, BS with Highest Distinction
University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL, 1965-1969, BA with High Honors & Distinction

HONORS AND AWARDS
2006 Lee Davinroy Excellence in Teaching Award, Women's Studies Program, University of
South Carolina, Columbia, SC.

2005 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award in Global/Public Health. School of Nursing, Universidade
Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil, May-June, 2005.

2002 - 2004 Fellow, International Center for Health Leadership Development, University of Illinois
at Chicago

1998 - 2000 Fellow, World Health Organization Collaborating Center in Healthy Cities and the
Institute of Action Research for Community Health, Indiana University School of Nursing

RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Hilfinger Messias, D.K., Moneyham, L., Murdaugh, C. & Phillips, K. D. (2006). HIV/AIDS Peer
Counselors' Perspectives on Intervention Delivery Formats. Clinical Nursing Research, 15(3),
177-196.

Jennings, L. B., Parra-Medina, D., Messias, D. K. H., & McLoughlin, K. Toward a theory of critical
social youth empowerment. (2006). Journal of Community Practice,14(1/2), 29-54.

Messias, D. K. H., DeJong, M. K. & McLoughlin, K. (2005). Expanding the concept of women's work:
Volunteer work in the context of poverty. Journal of Poverty, 9(3), 25-47.

Messias, D. K. H., Fore, E., McLoughlin, K. & Parra-Medina, D. (2005). Adult Roles in Community-
Based Youth Empowerment Programs: Implications for Best Practices. Family and Community
Health 28(4) 320-337.

Messias, D. K. H., DeJong, M. K., & McLoughlin, K. (2005). Being Involved and making a difference: Personal empowerment among women living in poverty. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 23(1), 70-88.

Messias, D K. H & DeJoseph, J. F. (2004). Feminist Narrative Interpretations: Challenges, tensions,and opportunities for nurse researchers. Aquichan, 4(4), 40-49.

Messias, D.K.H. (2002). Transnational health resources, practices, and perspectives: Brazilian immigrant women's narratives. Journal of Immigrant Health 4(4), 183-200.

Messias, D. K. H. (2001). Globalization, nursing, and Health for All. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 33(1), 9-11.

Messias, D.K.H. (2001). Transnational perspectives on women's domestic work: Experiences of Brazilian immigrants in the United States. Women and Health, 33(1/2), 1-20.

Messias, D. K. H., Im, E., Page, A., Regev, H., Spiers, J., Yoder, L., & Meleis, A. I. (1997). Defining and redefining work: Implications for women’s health. Gender & Society, 11(3), 296-323.