Donna Gaffney

Donna A. Gaffney, DNSc, PMHCNS-BC, FAAN, is a psychotherapist, advanced practice psychiatric mental health clinician, and affiliated professor at Hunter College in New York City. She previously served on the faculty at Columbia University. Donna has long addressed stress, loss, and trauma in the lives of adults and children, communities, and healthcare professionals — providing clinical and educational interventions in the aftermath of personal trauma and crisis as well as national disasters such as the Challenger explosion, 9/11, the Sandy Hook school shooting, Hurricane Katrina, and the Coronavirus pandemic.
Donna consistently focuses on enhancing the well-being of healthcare and mental health professionals, particularly those in high-stress environments. In September 2023, Johns Hopkins University Press published her evidence-based book Courageous Well-Being for Nurses: Strategies for Renewal. The book offers healthcare professionals essential concepts and strategies for safeguarding their mental health and improving overall well-being. Presently, she is designing a curriculum that explores the intersection of meaningful work, mattering, and well-being among healthcare professionals.
She has also been a consistent voice in the lay press, writing blogs and more than two dozen op-eds addressing the high-risk changes in the U.S. healthcare landscape. Her columns have been featured on The Rachel Maddow Show and cited by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and Your Neighborhood Epidemiologist blog, bringing professional expertise into public conversations about health policy and equity. In addition, Donna is a member of the leadership team of Grandparents for Vaccines, a new grassroots organization giving grandparents a voice to remind families of the dangers of a world without vaccines.
Donna is also the author of The Seasons of Grief, Helping Children Grow Through Loss, one of the first books written for families of bereaved children. Child and adult literature is a vital therapeutic tool in her practice. She has curated book lists for healthcare professionals, parents, and teachers, and she writes discussion guides for child and young adult literature: 911: The Book of Help, Speak, Breath to Breath, and Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes. Donna collaborated with the New York Life Foundation on their book series Kai's Journey and Lost in the Middle, a unique graphic novel for young people.
With extensive experience in classroom, experiential, and online education, Donna designs and offers workshops, presentations, and webinars nationally and internationally to universities, communities, and organizations. She has taught and directed graduate programs at the International Trauma Studies Program and Columbia University, where she was a two-time finalist for the Presidential Teaching Award. Donna holds master’s degrees from Teachers College at Columbia University and Rutgers University and earned her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. She was a Fellow at Columbia University Journalism School (Children and the News) and received a post-graduate certificate from the International Trauma Studies Program in New York City. She is a member of the American Academy of Nursing, among other professional organizations, and the American Psychological Association. In 2021, she received the American Psychiatric Nurses Association Award for Excellence in Practice - APRN. For more information, go to www.DonnaGaffney.com.