PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago
MSN, University of Illinois at Chicago
BSN, Marquette University
Behavioral Disciplines and Activities
JoEllen Wilbur, PhD, APN, FAAN has a long research career in the area of women’s health with a focus on midlife women’s symptoms, cardiovascular health, and physical activity behavior. As a nursing scientist, she is recognized for advancing the science and practice regarding women’s physical activity. Early in her career, she was able to build on physical activity measures originally developed for men and extend capability for reliable and valid measures of women’s activity. She expanded that work in pursuit of exercise physical activity as a natural alternative to hormone replacement therapy to manage menopausal symptoms. She has a line of research, spanning over three decades, in developing evidence based, culturally sensitive, community based physical interventions to increase physical activity in African American women. This includes consideration of the influence of environmental factors, including the ‘built’ environment, on women’s adoption and maintenance of physical activity. She expanded her research to examine the influence of physical activity on cognition in older Latinx. Her work has been funded from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Wood Johnson Active Living Research and National Institutes of Health.
Wilbur joined the College of Nursing at Rush University as professor and Endowed Independence Chair in Nursing in September 2007. She served as associate dean for research from June 2008 to 2020. She served as a member of the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research at NIH from 2017-2021.
1997 National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties, 1997 Achievement in Research Award. Awarded at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioners, Albuquerque, N.M.
1998 Inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing
2003 Marquette University, College of Nursing, 2003 Distinguished Alumni Award
2005 Association of Community Health Nursing Educators Research Award
2005-2008 University of Illinois at Chicago University Scholar
2009 Inducted as a fellow in the Illinois Institute of Medicine
2011 Distinguished Contribution Award by the Midwest Nursing Research Society (MNRS), Midwest Nursing Research Award, Columbus, Ohio
2013 Sigma Theta Tau International, 2013 International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame, Prague
2020 University of Illinois College of Nursing Outstanding Alumni Achievement
2020 Rush University Excellence Award in the Category of Research
2020 Fellow American Heart Association
2022 Lifetime Achievement Award, Midwest Nursing Research Society
NIH, National Institute of Nursing Research
R21NR018952
Co-Investigator
2020-2022
The Use of a Digital Application for Reporting Pain and Pain Management in Home Hospice
National Institute of Nursing Research, R01NR018443
Co-Investigator, Site PI
2020 - 2024
Lifestyle Physical Activity and Cognitive Training Interventions: Preventing Memory Loss in Older Women with Cardiovascular Disease
NIH, National Institute of Nursing Research
R01NR017635
Co-Investigator
2018-2022
Testing Adaptive Interventions to Improve Physical Activity for Sedentary Women
National Institutes of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, R01DK132698
Co-Investigator
2022-2024
Black Girls Move: A Daughter/Mother Intervention to Prevent Obesity by Increasing Physical Activity and Improving Dietary Intake among Black Adolescent Daughters