C. Alicia Georges

Nurse, professor, academic administrator, and nonprofit executive C. Alicia Georges was born in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, on February 14, 1944. She received her B.S.N. degree in 1965 from the Seton Hall University College of Nursing, in South Orange, New Jersey, her M.A. degree in community health nursing administration and supervision in 1973 from New York University School of Education (later NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development), Division of Nursing, and her Ed.D. degree in educational leadership and policy studies in 2001 from the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont.

From 1965 to 1975, Georges served at the Visiting Nurse Service of New York as staff nurse, supervisor, and district director. Georges joined the nursing faculty of Lehman College of the City University of New York in 1975, where she has served as lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor, and, starting in 2002, professor and chairperson of nursing. Georges served as president of the National Black Nurses Association from 1987 to 1991. She also has served as president of the National Black Nurses Foundation. In 2018, Georges became national volunteer president of AARP. Georges also is the founder of CAG Home Health Services, a healthcare business in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Georges has served as president of the board of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools, chair of the Bronx Westchester Area Health Education Council and of Bronx Community Board #12, vice chair of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, secretary treasurer of the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks, a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and of the New York Academy of Medicine, on the boards of AARP, Black Women’s Health Study, Easterseals, R.A.I.N., Inc., the National Clinician Scholars Program, the Health Care Quality Alliance, and on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Council on Nursing Education and Practice, the New York State Governor’s Health Care Advisory Board, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and the Children’s Aid Society Health Advisory Committee.

Georges is a member of the American Public Health Association, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society, Golden Key Honor Society, and an honorary member of Chi Eta Phi Nursing Sorority. She also belongs to the American Nurses Association, New York State Nurses Association, and the National League for Nursing.

Georges has received numerous honors and awards, including the American Nurses Association Mary Mahoney Award, the American Academy of Nursing Living Legend, the Josephine Bolus Nursing Champion Award, the New York State Legislative Nurse of Distinction, King Chavez Parks Visiting Scholar, University of Michigan School of Nursing Mabel Staupers Award, the Women in Public Service Award, and the Jane Delano Distinguished Service Award.

Georges lives in the Bronx, New York. She and her late husband, Ronald Ellis, had one daughter, Brenda Georges.

C. Alicia Georges was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on December 11, 2021.