Maribelle B. Leavitt, PhD ’88, RN:  Advocating for healthier families and communities

Husbands, wives, and children were poorly equipped to cope with a close relative who was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness or discharged after a prolonged hospitalization – and everyone suffered.

“A very sick patient can suck up a lot of energy in the family and people get left behind,” says Leavitt. She went on to become an assistant clinical professor at UCSF’s School of Nursing and a champion of the evolving field of family health care nursing.

Instead of concentrating solely on the patient’s health, Leavitt’s teaching and research focused on the wellness of the family as a unit. To improve the chances of a loved one’s recovery and keep the family emotionally sound, relatives “had to be taught practical skills to take care of a very ill patient,” she says.

Her work helped illuminate the needs of families in crisis and showed generations of UCSF nursing students how to empower relatives to successfully care for a sick relative while keeping their household intact.

“When we talked to families and told them what they could expect and tried to support them, the patient did a lot better,” says Leavitt. That meant showing family members how they could help a sick relative with home health care, healthier diets, and safe exercise regimens.

“The more involved the family was in a positive way, the less the patient and the family suffered,” says Leavitt, who wrote an early textbook, Families at Risk, on the subject.

While the family-focused approach hasn’t caught on as much as Leavitt would have hoped, nurses have become thought leaders and advocates of family health care, says her former UCSF classmate and colleague, professor Catherine Chesla, PhD ’88, FAAN, RN. “Maribelle, for as long as I’ve known her, has appreciated the fact that families are essentially important to health,” says Chesla.

In retirement, Leavitt has stayed committed to the well-being of others – turning her attention to community service and, with her husband, Stephen Leavitt, to philanthropy. She contributed her leadership to the boards of multiple organizations, including UCSF’s School of Nursing, the Mount Zion Health Fund, and the California Historical Society.

She regularly taps into her wide network of resources to fill gaps in mental health and medical services in the Bay Area. Leavitt recently helped forge a partnership connecting UCSF nurse practitioner students to the nonprofit Sonoma Valley Community Health Center, where they have treated families for both medical and emotional problems, including stress-related issues resulting from the devastating wildfires that swept through the area in 2017.

“She really has a giving heart,” says Cheryl Johnson, the health center’s CEO.

She is characteristically modest about her contributions. “Everybody I know cares about other people,” Leavitt says.

Leavitt, who launched her nursing career as a candy striper in high school, is the recipient of a 2019 UCSF Campaign Alumni Award recognizing her unwavering dedication to helping others.