Jean Watson was born in a small, close-knit town in the Appalachian Mountains

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...

 of West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

 in the 1940s. Jean Watson graduated from the Lewis Gale School of Nursing in Roanoke, Virginia

Roanoke, Virginia

Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...

, in 1961. She continued her nursing studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder

University of Colorado at Boulder

The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...

, earning a B.S. in 1964, an M.S. in psychiatric and mental health nursing in 1966, and a Ph.D. in educational psychology and counseling in 1973. She is the author of numerous books, including The Philosophy and Science of Caring. Watson is well known for her Theory of Human/Transpersonal Caring. She currently (2010) holds an endowed chair at the University of Colorado (UC faculty page). She created the non-profit Watson Caring Science Institute (http://www.watsoncaringscience.org/) in 2008 to further spread her ideas.

Honors

• Honorary Doctor of Sciences in Nursing, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (November 2010)
• International Honorary Doctorate, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada (2003)