Contact Info Margaret Wallhagen, RN, Ph.D., GNP 521 Parnassus Ave. Nursing 631A, Box 0610 San Francisco, CA 94143-0610 Tel: (415) 476-4965 Fax: (415) 476-8899 Email: meg.wallhagen@nursing.ucsf.edu

She graduated initially from a three year diploma school of nursing in New York City and subsequently earned my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Nursing from the University of California, San Francisco, and my doctorate in nursing from the University of Washington in Seattle. I taught at California State University, Chico for a number of years prior to obtaining my doctoral and then came to UCSF to join the gerontology specialty program housed in the Department of Physiological Nursing. My interests in diabetes arose from its impact on older adults and their families, and my desire to help individuals have the best quality of life possible throughout life.

My research focuses on conditions that affect how people age and how they and their families respond to these conditions. I am especially interested in finding out how people manage chronic conditions, and how we as health care providers can assist individuals deal with the various issues that arise when trying to manage chronic conditions across time. My research activities include exploring how African-Americans 60 years of age and older experience a sense of control in the context of managing the condition, and how an intensive class affects or influences the management of diabetes by older African-Americans and the person who helps them most manage to their diabetes. I also do research exploring what “successful aging” means to older adults, and how older adults experience hearing impairment, a condition that is non-uncommonly associated with diabetes and that greatly affects the quality of life of older persons.

Many of my responsibilities revolve around teaching in the School of Nursing, specifically in the Gerontology Specialty program, in both the Masters and doctoral programs. Clinically, I currently work in the Geriatric Clinic at the Veterans Administration Hospital with the Geriatric Fellows in the School of Medicine. In this capacity, I focus much of my time working with individuals who have diabetes or hearing impairment.

UCSF has a unique capacity to contribute to the research on and care of diabetes because of the numbers of individuals who are looking at various issues from many different perspectives. Anyone who comes to obtain care at UC also has the benefit of receiving care from a multi-disciplinary team that uses comprehensive approach based on the very latest understanding of diabetes.