About
Camille Howard joined AB in 2017 as Associate Professor of Nursing and was promoted to Director of the BSN Program in 2022. Under her leadership the program has achieved CCNE re-accreditation (2024), grown from 96 to 144 enrolled BSN students, and increased the five-year average NCLEX-RN first-time pass rate from 84% to 91%.
Howard holds a Ph.D. in Nursing Science from Vanderbilt University, where her dissertation examined the experience of low-income mothers in rural Appalachian Tennessee navigating gestational-diabetes diagnosis and treatment. She also holds an M.S.N. in Public Health Nursing from the University of Kentucky and a B.S.N. from Berea College — a small Appalachian liberal-arts college that admits only first-generation students.
Before academia, Howard spent twenty years in clinical and public-health nursing in eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia, primarily in maternal-and-child health programs. She was a labor-and-delivery nurse at the Pikeville Medical Center, a public-health nurse with the Kentucky River District Health Department, and a maternal-health program director for the Appalachian Health Initiative.
Education
- 2014Ph.D., Nursing Science — Vanderbilt University. Dissertation: The Conversation: Gestational Diabetes Diagnosis & Patient Experience in Rural Appalachia.
- 2004M.S.N., Public Health Nursing — University of Kentucky.
- 1996B.S.N. (with honors) — Berea College.
Teaching
Dr. Howard teaches two upper-division BSN courses each year and remains an active clinical preceptor at the Davis Memorial Hospital maternity ward.
- NUR 320Maternal & Newborn Health NursingA 5-credit junior-year course pairing classroom instruction with a 90-hour labor-and-delivery and postpartum clinical rotation. Particular attention to rural maternal-health disparities.
- NUR 415Community & Public Health NursingA senior-year course on the social determinants of health, public-health nursing practice, and the role of the BSN in community-based care.
- NUR 460Senior Capstone & Leadership PracticumA 6-credit final-semester course with a 180-hour preceptor-paired clinical rotation and a written capstone on a clinical-quality improvement project.
Research, Funded Work, & Practice
Dr. Howard's research program addresses maternal-health disparities in central Appalachia — particularly in gestational diabetes, prenatal substance use, and rural access to obstetric care. She is the principal investigator on three currently active grants totaling $2.1M in support, including a $1.4M HRSA Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention (NEPQR) grant for the AB Rural Maternal Health Nursing Initiative.
She is a board member of the West Virginia Perinatal Partnership, an editorial board member of the Journal of Rural Nursing & Health Care, and a frequent expert witness in WV legislative hearings on rural maternal health. In 2023 she testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on the closure of rural obstetric units.
Selected Publications & Presentations
- 2025"The Closing of Rural Maternity Wards: A Workforce Perspective." Health Affairs, January.
- 2024"Gestational Diabetes Diagnosis as a Communication Event." JOGNN.
- 2022"Building a Rural Maternal Health Nursing Pipeline." Nursing Education Perspectives.
- 2020Co-author, Appalachian Maternal Health: A Clinical Guide. Springer.
- 2023U.S. Senate HELP Committee Testimony, "Rural Maternity Care Crisis."
Honors & Service
- 2024CCNE Re-Accreditation Award for the AB BSN Program.
- 2023Sigma Theta Tau International Mentor of the Year.
- 2022Promoted to Director, BSN Program.
- 2020WV Nurses Association Public Health Nurse of the Year.
- 2014Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Dean's Award.
The most consequential moment in American maternal health is not the high-tech delivery room. It is the conversation a nurse has with a frightened mother — and whether that nurse has had the training, the time, and the trust to do it well.— Dr. Camille R. Howard, RN, PhD
Beyond the Classroom
Howard lives in nearby Buckhannon with her husband Marcus (a retired pharmacist) and is an active member of First United Methodist Church. Her three adult children all became nurses (which she says was "not on purpose"); the youngest, Jasper, is an L&D nurse at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
She is an accomplished amateur quilter — her 2024 "Appalachian Maternal Quilt" series toured five regional art museums — and a competitive bocce player in the Buckhannon Senior League.