Claretta Y. Dupree, PhD is a registered nurse with a wide variety of clinical and academic experiences in both the civilian and military sectors. She graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences in Memphis. Her naval career began soon after with a direct commission, followed by Officers' Indoctrination School at Newport, RI. She has served on active duty at naval hospitals in Philadelphia and Great Lakes from 1976-1979, and at the Naval Hospital Corps School at Great Lakes from 1989-1993. From 1984-1989, she served in reserve units in Houston, TX and New Orleans, LA, and in Milwaukee, WI from 1993-2005.
As a civilian, Dr. Dupree earned a Master of Science in Oncology Nursing from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 1985 and completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Nursing with a minor in Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in May, 1998. She became a collegiate educator in 1984, teaching at Texas Woman's University until 1986, followed by an appointment at Charity Hospital School of Nursing until 1989. In 1989, she was recalled to active duty, and taught at Naval Hospital Corps School in Great Lakes, IL until 1993. While there, she was Head, Staff Education and Training Division. She is holds membership in Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, is co-chair of the Race And Culture/Ethnicity Affinity Group of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, and is the former Chairperson of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity Academy of Fellows from 2011-2020. She also currently serves as ethicist for the Data Safety Monitoring Board of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Dupree was previously an assistant professor at Medical College of Wisconsin, where she was the Director of Research of the Pediatric Palliative Care Department. In 2011, she completed the Palliative Care Education and Practice Faculty Development Program at Harvard Medical School. In addition to advance directives and cultural diversity issues in ethics, her current research interests are hope, ambiguity in ethical decision-makers, research ethics, and moral distress among pediatric intensive care staff.
She is keeping busy in retirement, operating an editing business, learning to crochet, rooting avocado seeds, studying music theory and studying healing touch. Dr. Dupree calls both Greensboro, NC and Kenosha, WI home.
