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Diane Berry, PhD, ANP-BC, FAANP, FAAN (deceased)

Jane Sox Monroe Distinguished Professor in Nursing

Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460

Message from the Dean on March 24, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

I am shaken and deeply grieved to have to share the unthinkable news that our colleague and friend, Diane, passed away earlier today surrounded by her family.

It was Diane’s express wish not to have a memorial service or funeral, so her family will honor her life privately, as she preferred. But in the days to come, we will find a way as a School community to formally remember her and her phenomenal legacy as a nurse scholar, mentor, and educator. Diane’s tireless dedication and selfless commitment to advancing nursing research, supporting her peers, and guiding junior faculty and students is an example to us all.

For now, please remember her family, friends, and your fellow colleagues — all of us who knew and worked with Diane, and who deeply valued her many contributions to our School and to nursing — in your thoughts and prayers. It is a sad, hard day for us all, and a tremendous loss to our profession. She will be sorely missed.

In sympathy,

Nena

Biography

Dr. Berry obtained a Diploma in Nursing at the Sisters of Charity Hospital School of Nursing and Canisus College in Buffalo, New York in 1976. She received a BSN from Lenoir Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina in 1987. In 1997, she received her MSN and ANP-BC from Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Dr. Berry received her PhD at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts in Philosophy of Science. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University from 2003-2005 in Nursing and Self and Family Management of Chronic Conditions. Dr. Berry focused on management and prevention of obesity, type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes mellitus using community-based research in English and Spanish in the United States and in Mexico. Her research interests included translation science focusing on dissemination and implementation using web-based and smart phone interventions.

Dr. Berry had a broad background in the development of theory-based interventions and community-based research in multiple settings with multiethnic, low-income, and low-literacy parents and their children, adults with type 2 diabetes, pregnant mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus and type 2 diabetes in the U.S. and México. She served as the principal investigator (PI), multiple principal investigator (MPI) and co-investigator (Co-I) on University and National Institutes of Health funded grants. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she served as a Faculty Scholar in Health Literacy, and as a Center for Public Service Faculty Engaged Scholar, where she developed partnerships between the university and Hispanic communities in North Carolina. She has also served as an Internal Advisory Board Member for the Center for Health Equity Research. Dr. Berry worked closely with public health departments, community-based health centers, and public school systems for over 18 years. For the last 15 years, Dr. Berry actively conducted research and wrote manuscripts with colleagues in the U.S. and México, and her research team successfully administered studies and produced multiple peer-reviewed publications.

Specialties

News

The UNC School of Nursing mourns scholar, mentor, and educator Diane Berry