Dr. Ruth D. Corcoran, EdD, RN

The late Dr. Corcoran served as chief executive officer of the National League for Nursing, the oldest professional nursing association in the United States. Under her tenure, the NLN had 1,200 agency and more than 20,000 individual members and an annual operating budget of more than $10,000,000. Dr. Corcoran was instrumental in providing the key leadership to successfully move the NLN from a huge deficit to a healthy fund balance in the last several years, enabling the NLN to maintain the financial strength to continue to serve nursing education programs and nurse educators with services and benefits that support teaching efforts, address the critical shortages of nurses and nurse educators, and create the future of nursing education.

Dr. Corcoran's long, successful career encompassed many aspects of association management. Prior to her appointment at the NLN in 1998, she served in the national office of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, Georgia, where she had an impressive record of accomplishment over her 14 years of service and was one of the first women to be named a national vice president. In this position, she was responsible for the strategic management of over 2,000,000 volunteers nationwide.

Dr. Corcoran had an extensive record of volunteer service as well. She served as the chair of the Nursing Organizations Alliance (70 national nursing organizations), as president of the American Association for Health Education, as chair of the National School Health Education Coalition, a director on the board of the New York Society of Association Executives, and later served on Galen’s Board of Directors. She also authored numerous publications in professional journals and presentations at conferences.

Master of Science in Community Health
Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Doctor of Education (EdD), cum laude
Columbia University, New York City, New York

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