Western Carolina University

Patricia Gilliam, PhD, MEd, ARNP-BC
School of Nursing
Associate Professor
Director of the Accelerated Baccalaureate Nursing Program

Phone: 828-654-6522
Office: Biltmore Park, 319
Email: ppgilliam@email.wcu.edu
Areas of Expertise: Adult Primary Care, HIV Medicine, Continuing Medical/Nursing Education
Areas of Research Interest: HIV Medical Management, Performance Improvement in HIV Care, Performance Improvement in Primary Adult Care

Additional Areas of Research Interest:

• Transition of adolescents with chronic illness from child-centered to adult care settings
• Patient-provider-nurse communications
• Patient-provider-nurse communications: to improve patient education and encourage life-style changes to improve health outcomes
• Health care communication
• Motivational Interviewing
• Community Health and Service Learning in Accelerated Baccalaureate Nursing Education

Dr. Patricia Gilliam is the Director of Acclerated BSN at Western Carolina University School of Nursing. She has been associate professor at WCU since August, 2012, teaching in the Accelerated Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing (ABSN) Program.

Prior to coming to Western Carolina University, Dr. Gilliam was working as a Clinical Education Consultant and Clinical Specialist for the National Center for HIV Care in Minority Communities in Washington, D.C. She most recently developed a curriculum that is being used to train primary care providers and nurses working in Federally Qualified Community Health Centers in the medical and nursing management of persons living with HIV/AIDS. 

Dr. Gilliam received her PhD degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa in May, 2009. Her doctoral dissertation described the process of preparing and transitioning adolescents with HIV disease from child-centered care to adult medical care within the clinics participating in the Adolescent Trials Network of HIV Care. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Masters of Science in Nursing in Adult Acute and Critical Care as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. She has worked in Cardiac Critical Care, cardiac step-down, in-patient cardiac rehabilitation Phase I and outpatient cardiac rehabilitation Phase II.

Dr. Gilliam is a member of the American Nurses Association, the North Carolina Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau International and the American Association of HIV Medicine. She currently resides in Asheville, North Carolina.