An immigrant becomes a patriot & nursing research leader!
Meet Belle of Steel #28, Mary Dioise Ramos, PhD, RN, CNE, FAAN
SEPTEMBER 14, 2026
Mary Dioise Ramos also grew up in Manila in the Philippines. She knew her pathway to life was through nursing. She believes she has been a planner her whole life. Even while a young woman, she set goals, wrote them down, and held herself to what was written. She never gave up, no matter what. Even in the quiet moments now, Mary stops and askes herself whether she has truly earned the gifts that she has been given.
She believes that through hard work and diligence, the stars aligned, all seemingly in her favor. She has come to understand that both things are true at once; hard work, and diligence, and those stars which blessed her both personally and professionally. Even today, she tries to hold that tension with gratitude, rather than doubt.
Finishing nursing school at the University of Santo Tomas in 2004, she obtained her bachelor of nursing (BSN). Then she continued on in school, completing her Master of Arts in Nursing in 2009. All the while, she worked as a staff nurse and occupational health nurse straight out of her BSN program. In 2005, she moved into teaching, becoming a lecturer, clinical coordinator, and training manager while she finished her Master’s degree. During that time, she did a brief stint as a nursing school dean in the Philippines.
Then, she found herself immigrating to the United States. She had to rebuild her career one rank at a time, first as a clinical instructor at Georgia Southern, then Georgia State, all while she pursued even more education. Mary was going for her PhD at Georgia State University. She completed it in 2018. While working, teaching, and growing, she never stopped adding to that foundation, training in Big Data methodology through the National Institute of Nursing Research in July, 2015; Precision Medicine through the National Human Genome Research Institute in August, 2015. Mary completed the Alzheimer’s Association Interdisciplinary Summer Research Institute in August, 2021. She became a trainee regarding the science of resilience for American Geriatrics Society looking at resilience in older adults in October, 2022; and completed an Alzheimer’s-focused fellowship through the Alzheimer’s Association and Bright Focus Foundation in November, 2022.
Mary believes each one of those steps of advancement and involvement, from Manila, to Statesboro and Atlanta, Georgia was preparing her without fully realizing it at the time. She was destined to lead a research enterprise. That goal came to fruition July 1, 2023 when she was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure with Tenure. Then, she was hired as an Associate Professor at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center – New Orleans (LSU-HSC). That position forced a move from Georgia to Louisiana. Then, she received another promotion, to become the Associate Dean for Nursing Research, Scholarship, and Science on August 1, 2024. What a mover and shaker Mary is indeed.
But Mary wasn’t done yet. In April of 2025, she worked on an Environmental Health Research project on behalf of Caster Incorporated. She became a Certified Nurse Educator through the national Leagues for Nursing; part of Mental Health First Aid for the National Council for Mental Wellbeing; she maintains her certification in Basic Life Support (BLS) through the American Heart Association; completed the Accessibility Basics Workshop Schedule, Effective Online Facilitation from the KSU Excellence in Teaching and Learning program, hold a Peer Reviewer Certification from KSU, and completed the Quality Matters (QM) workshop to apply the QM Rubric. She also completed the Leadership Excellence and the Inaugural Inclusive Excellence Certifications from Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
Don’t know about you, but this author is exhausted just reading the accomplishments, which seem to go on and on! Her professional curriculum vitae for LSU-HSC is over twenty-seven pages in length. Her professional positions are amazing as are her list of publications. Just this month, in August and September of 2026, Dr. Mary Ramos has published over five peer reviewed articles and researched based studies with colleagues in various upper-crust professional nursing journals. The list of her national awards are lengthy. Mary was nominated to become a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. That has a six month processing timeline, submitting the packet in February and hearing the final results in June. She was then officially inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN). Her contribution to nursing and research is immense. Mary humbly admits that recognition was extremely rewarding and one of which she is most proud.
In addition to being a nursing research professional, Mary is also happily married and a mother. She believes that womanhood, especially motherhood, carries a particular weight of responsibility. When she became pregnant and delivered her children, she cared for them through months of broken sleep, all while still needing to move her career forward. Talk about resilience. That profound responsibility to be a good parent, Mary believes is its own quiet obstacle course. Mary found that caring for her children shaped the efforts of her research, too. Her work in nursing research involves family caregiving. Mary feels that women are often drawn toward that caregiving role almost by default, the same instinct that has her thinking of her own parents and the responsibility to care for them as they age. Most of the leadership she has encountered in research and academia has, in fact, been held by men; not the women who have lived the role.
Mary feels strongly that being an immigrant, somewhat surprisingly to her, has worked in her favor, as well. The people of today are more open to understanding and embracing her cultural background and heritage; far more than she imagined they would. Mary’s savvy techniques to succeed has been to simply lean into whatever she found most difficult. She believes that the harder something is, the more deliberately one must invest to get better at the task at hand. Mary describes herself as a life-long learner; continually trying to improve herself through education and awareness. She believes that will ultimately enable her to extend her impact and help others. Boy, does she sound like she possesses what it takes to be a Belle of Steel? Absolutely 100%.
Another rewarding experience Mary described, and deems important, has been her work to improve the lives of Filipino American families navigating dementia and the caregivers who hold those families together. To Mary, it feels life a gift that her scholarship and service to her own community turned out to be the same work. Five years from now, Mary hopes to be doing exactly what she is doing now, leading a research enterprise and using that research, scholarship, and service to change lives for the better. She states, “I don’t need the next chapter to look different, so much as deeper: more impact, more people mentored, more evidence translated into real care for real families.”
In her spare time, if there is any, Mary enjoys family life with her husband of fifteen years, Reynold “Joy” Tamayo; describing him as the “joy” of her life. “Joy” is his nickname, which Mary believes is a good name for a guy. She reveals that he is 100% supportive of whatever she does. Joy is very hands on in taking care of their children, three lovely daughters.
For all the reasons above, AgeView Press is truly honored to have Dr. Mary Dioise Ramos, lovingly known as “Oishie” to her family and friends, as our twenty-eighth Belle of Steel. Wowsa!
Military connections: Mary’s brother served in the U.S. Army. Two of her uncles served in the U.S. Navy, as well as two of her grand-uncles. Honor, courage, and commitment, the Naval ideals ring true for Mary for sure.