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Bio
Virginia Elizabeth Fisher OLeary
School of Nursing
School of Nursing
Virginia Elizabeth Fisher O’Leary, Ph.D., Lecturer of Psychology in Nursing
B.A., Chatham College, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1965; M.A., Wayne State University, 1967; Ph.D., Wayne State University, 1969.
Lecturer of Psychology in Nursing, University of Michigan School of Nursing, 1968.
Virginia E. O’Leary taught the course Psychology in Nursing for the winter term, 40 percent appointment, while she was working on her doctorate. Subsequently O’Leary was assistant professor and associate professor of psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan and deputy executive officer of public affairs, American Psychological Association. From 1990 to 1994 she was professor and chair, Department of Psychology, Indiana State University, Terre Haute. In 1994 she joined the faculty of Auburn University as professor of psychology and chair of the department, retiring as professor emerita from Auburn sometime after 2000.
O’Leary’s conducted research on work, gender and socialization across cultures. She is the author of Toward Understanding Women (1977), Women, Gender and Social Psychology (1985), and Storming the Tower: Women in the Academic World (1990). In 2005 O’Leary was a Fulbright Scholar in Kathmandu, Nepal and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Chatham University.