Alumni Profile
Finding Direction at Holy Family University
Alumni Profile
Earlier this year, Dr. Rita (Seeger) Jablonski ’86, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, FGSA was honored by Geriatric Nursing, a peer-reviewed healthcare journal, by being named as a Leader and Innovator in the field. She has also been named a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Academy of Nursing, among other awards and honors. While she is currently based at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing, the native of Fox Chase, Philadelphia began her journey as a nursing student at Holy Family. “Holy Family had a really good reputation,” Jablonski says, “And that was important to me because I was the first person in my family to go to college.” But Jablonski’s interest in elder care did not just result from her schoolwork. As she was pursuing her degree, she was also working as a nursing assistant in a nursing home.
Photo Credit: UAB School of Nursing
“It was one of the best jobs I ever had,” she recalls. “I really liked working with people who had dementia. I found the whole disease fascinating, and we knew very little about it in the 1980s.”
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After graduating from Holy Family University, Jablonski earned her MSN degree from La Salle University and her Post-Master’s Certificate Adult Primary Care Nurse Practitioner from the University of Pennsylvania. During that period, she returned to Holy Family University as an instructor. Her current role is Director of
WINTER 2021
