Elena O. Siegel, Ph.D.
Associate Professor Emeritus and Associate Director for the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators
Elena O. Siegel is an associate professor emeritus at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, associate director for the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators and a 2011-2014 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar. As a member of the school’s founding faculty, Siegel blends skills in nursing, health care systems, business and finance to conduct research at the intersection of practice and policy and to mentor students as they develop the systems and business acumen necessary for nursing leadership in complex health care environments.
Siegel’s research focuses on building capacity of nursing home management teams to enhance quality and value. Currently, Siegel is conducting research funded by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing to develop and test guidelines for directors of nursing to use a resource in their role managing nursing practice, specifically delegation. Additionally, she is currently funded by the National Association of Long-Term Care Administrator Boards to conduct a pilot study to establish feasibility of an approach to better understand the functioning and performance of nursing home administrators.
In a recently completed study, funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar award, Siegel examined the role of nursing home administrators in quality improvement (QI) and developed a tool to assess their QI capabilities. Her other research projects focus on nursing home: 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 in 2010, 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. She was also named 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.
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 Annals of Long-Term Care: Clinical Care and Aging, The Gerontologist, Nursing Administration Quarterly, Journal of Gerontological Nursing, the International Journal of Older People Nursing, Policy Politics & Nursing Practice, Health Care Management Review and Nursing Outlook. She is a member of the National Hartford Centers of Gerontological Nursing Excellence alumni group (formerly known as BAGNC), Western Institute of Nursing and the Gerontological Society of America.
Contact Information: Phone: 916-703-5177 | E-mail: eosiegel@ucdavis.edu
