Dr. Beth Chatham began at Cumberland University in 2006 as adjunct clinical faculty in Pediatric Nursing, becoming full time faculty in 2011. Within the School of Nursing Dr. Chatham has taught Pediatric Nursing, Leadership, Research in Nursing, Transcultural Nursing, Transition to Professional Practice, and Nursing Concepts. Dr. Chatham is the inaugural recipient of the Dr. Michael J. Spalding Professorship in Nursing.

Dr. Chatham is a graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing with a BSN, and a decade later with an MSN. She earned her PhD from the University of Tennessee Knoxville where she was presented with the Volunteer of Distinction Professional Promise Award. Dr. Chatham’s research focus is the cultural influences related to healthy weight care in children. Dr. Chatham has published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing, Nursing Research, and the Journal of Transcultural Nursing.

Dr. Chatham’s nursing experience has been global, both in specialty areas and location. She has worked as an operating room nurse at Boston Children’s Hospital, a community health nurse in Mississippi, a certified nurse midwife in the north of England, and a mission nurse in Honduras.

Dr. Chatham was the Maternal/Child Clinical Nurse Specialist at Nashville Metropolitan General Hospital for over 20 years. While at General, she helped develop the professional ladder program for the nursing department and co-published an article on this program for the journal Nurse Leader. Before coming to Cumberland full time, Dr. Chatham was Clinical Educator for Monroe Carroll Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, responsible for nursing orientation and continuing education. 

While in her faculty role at Cumberland, Dr. Chatham has developed two new nursing courses – Transcultural Nursing and Professional Nursing Concepts. Most recently, Dr. Chatham chaired the development of a new nursing track at Cumberland – the LPN to BSN track—and is currently Program Director for that new path to a BSN at Cumberland.