Meet Our Founder

The work of Dr. Georgianna Donadio has touched the lives of millions of people worldwide. For more than 40 years, she has been educating the healthcare community, as well as her patients, students and the public about how the 5 Aspects of Whole Health®  – the physical, emotional, nutritional, environmental and spiritual aspects of our lives can produce illness or wellness.

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Dr. Donadio’s pioneering work began in 1976 when, after years of working in nursing and within hospital administration, she recognized what was missing in health care to address chronic disease. This awareness motivated her to establish the National Institute of Whole Health in Boston, MA. In the process, Georgianna developed Whole Health Education®, a hospital-tested, Best Practice, relationship-centered, patient health education model. Embedded in this model is Behavioral Engagement™, a protocol to facilitate sustainable lifestyle change. Behavioral Engagement is the first known health behavior change model developed, tested, and applied in clinical environments.

Dr. Donadio’s groundbreaking, patent-pending (EFS 10 29847690) Amazon #1 Best Selling book, Changing Behavior, brings to the public an easy to learn, proven set of skills for transforming personal and professional relationships through the application of Behavioral Engagement principles to all levels of communication. Today, NIWH is a nationally and professionally accredited provider of evidence-based, Whole Health Education ® and Whole Person Care credentialing and continuing education programs for medical, allied health, and education providers.

The NIWH Whole Health curricula bridge the gap within conventional medical education with demystified health science courses that include natural, whole health, and whole person approaches to health and wellness. Dr. Donadio’s commitment and passion for nursing and transforming both medical education, as well as patient education are central to her work with NIWH, her practice, and her commitment to teaching.

She has appeared regularly on major TV and radio programs and in addition, is a multi-award-winning author. A longtime proponent of the important role nurses play in healthcare, she is one of only six Florence Nightingale scholars in the U.S. She serves on the Board of Advisors of the national Health Care Education Association, and is an Associate Scholar of the Global Holistic Nurses Association. She is a sought-after MNA award-winning Nurse Advocate and the recipient of the “Best of Boston Award” for Outstanding Chiropractic Practice.

Georgianna is also working to bring Whole Health Education to military spouses through the Department of Defense MyCAA education program for over 3 million military families, worldwide as NIWH is an approved education provider for the Department of Defense MyCAA programs. In addition, she is a popular and compelling speaker, author and media presenter whose expertise has been showcased through hundreds of speaking engagements, articles and interviews for TV, radio, print and online media.

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For 20 years, before retiring, she hosted a nationally syndicated television program on BCTV, Woman to Woman®, dedicated to women’s health, spirituality and lifestyle issues which reached millions of diverse populations across the country. She is currently the host of iHeart Radio’s “Living Above the Drama.”

 

Few individuals have the experience and success that Dr. Donadio has in developing methodologies to motivate individuals to transform their health-related behaviors. It is these behaviors that are resulting in skyrocketing rates of chronic disease and rising healthcare costs.