Elizabeth Fildes

Elizabeth Fildes, EdD, RN, CNE, CARN-AP, APHN-BC, is an internationally known tobacco-control expert whose work centers on decreasing the impact of tobacco use in Nevada and in the Philippines. Since 2013, she has served as a professor in the Post-Licensure and Graduate Nursing Program for the Chamberlain College of Nursing. She previously served 14 years as a director and principal investigator at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, where she developed the Nevada Tobacco Users Helpline (NTUH) and other programs to support nicotine addiction intervention. Fildes helped create a comprehensive tobacco-control program for Nevada, leading to a nearly 9-percent decrease in prevalence of tobacco use between 1997 and 2015. Fildes also worked with the Philippine Secretary of Health in 2012 to start a national quitline in the Philippines.

In 2015, Fildes began working with U.S. nursing programs to emphasize the role of nurses in comprehensive tobacco control programs at the local, state, national, and international levels. She advocated for the integration of tobacco cessation in the nursing school curriculum and assisted faculty in integrating the content into their courses. As a result of this work, smoking cessation is now included in the health, wellness, and prevention course in undergraduate nursing programs on 21 campuses in as many states and in a large RN-to-BSN program.

Fildes is a member of the Nevada State Nurses Association. She received her BSN degree at the University of Santo Tomas School of Nursing in Manila, Philippines; her Master’s degree at the Columbia University Teachers College in New York, NY; and her EdD at Loyola University in Chicago, IL. She is a Board-Certified Advance Public Health Nurse (APHN-BC), Certified Nurse Educator (CNE), and a Certified Addictions Registered Nurse, Advanced Practice (CARN-AP).