| The Hariri School of Nursing welcomed Christine Abbyad as Assistant Professor and new faculty member, starting September 1. It is not the first time Abbyad joins AUB faculty; she had given courses on maternity and pediatrics at the university in the early eighties. Now she feels happy to be part of “the only US accredited [by the CCNE] nursing school outside the US.”
The daughter of Presbyterian Christians who came to Lebanon from the United States in the early fifties on missionary work, Abbyad spent her childhood and adolescence in Lebanon (1953-1969), before she went back to the United States for her higher education. She received her BSN (1974) and her MSN (1980) from the University of California in San Francisco, where she was also certified as a women’s health nurse practitioner (WHNP).
Rejoining her parents in Lebanon after completing her degrees, Abbyad became a volunteer lecturer in Hammanah, besides her work at AUB (1981-83), before going to Riyad to work as a child health clinical specialist at King Fahad Hospital (1983-85). Getting married and going back to the United States, Abbyad continued working as a perinatal clinical specialist in Berkeley, California (1985-88), before stopping for four years to nurse her own two babies.
Upon resuming her career path, she moved with her family to Austin, Texas. Abbyad went on to do “bed-side nursing” while simultaneously teaching at the University of Texas (UT). Over the past 16 years of instruction at UT, Abbyad continued nursing and doing volunteer work at different health centers in Texas. She also obtained her PhD from the UT School of Nursing (2008). Her areas of interest have been the impact of racism on black/white perinatal health disparities, as well as health promotion.
Abbyad strongly recommends teaching nursing while maintaining the practice, as the two “enhance one another,” resulting in more effective instruction. At AUB, she will teach maternity nursing to undergraduates and plans to conduct research on the connection between following a smoking cessation program at college and being successful at stopping the bad habit during pregnancy.
Abbyad is the mother of two young men pursuing their university degrees. Her hobbies include cooking, knitting, gardening, and reading politics, especially those related to Palestinian issues. She likes to walk and exercise. As a people-oriented person whose upbringing focused on community work, she believes the world would be a better place “if everyone operated on the basis of doing good.” |
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