Nora Chestnutt Gerrity

Nora Chestnutt Gerrity graduated from Montana State University’s inaugural Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho (WWAMI) medical program class in 1975 and the University of Washington Medical School in 1979.  After residency in pediatrics at the University of Michigan, she began pediatric practice, specializing in endocrinology, in Great Falls.  She has been a tireless advocate for women in medicine in Montana for over 35 years. Gerrity provided care to children with severe illness, trauma, disability and alleged abuse. She was a part of the early development of the child advocacy team for treatment of sexual assault victims in Cascade County and served as the WWAMI site coordinator in pediatrics for 14 years and on the board of directors for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana for 20 years. She guided the development of the hospitalist model and the creation of simulation laboratories for nursing students. Her quiet caring and gentle demeanor made a positive impact on the lives of many nurses, students, physicians, children and their families. Gerrity and her husband, Tom, established a scholarship for advanced practice nurses in honor of her mother who was an MSU School of Nursing grad in 1971.

Nora Gerrity has made a significant difference in medicine, in the development of the hospitalist model, and in the lives of many nurses, students, physicians, children and their families in the course of an outstanding career.