Margaret Wallhagen, PhD, GNP-BC, AGSF, FGSA, FAAN

Dr. Margaret Wallhagen, Ph.D., is a professor of Gerontological Nursing and a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner in the School of Nursing, University of California San Francisco (UCSF). She received her initial nursing degree from St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing in New York, her baccalaureate and master’s degrees from UCSF, and her doctoral degree in nursing from the University of Washington in Seattle. Since joining the faculty at UCSF in 1988, she has taught gerontological nursing at both the master’s and doctoral level, and worked as a geriatric nurse practitioner. In January 2006, Dr. Wallhagen became the director of the UCSF/John A. Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence. Dr. Wallhagen’s research and publications focus especially on how older individuals and their families manage chronic illnesses as well as changes that occur with age. She has explored issues related to informal caregiving, diabetes, and successful aging, but for the last several decades has focused specifically on hearing loss. Her recent work included a four-year longitudinal study of the experience of hearing loss in older adults and their partners, and a study on the benefits of integrating a concise, easily implemented, screening and educational protocol into primary care settings to promote better access to care and treatment. She is currently exploring in the impact of hearing loss on the provision of quality palliative care as well as its impact on the caregiver-individual with hearing loss dyad in the context of a serious illness.