Rebecca Silvers is a nurse practitioner who cares for children recovering from brain surgery and children in critical condition due to brain injuries or diseases. Her expertise includes care for hydrocephalus (fluid buildup in the brain), brain tumors, craniosynostosis (when a baby's skull bones fuse too soon), traumatic brain injuries, tethered spinal cord (a birth defect in which attached tissues prevent the spinal cord from moving normally within the spinal canal) and spina bifida. In the intensive care unit, she treats a wide range of conditions, ranging from respiratory failure to shock and multiple organ system failure.
Silvers earned a bachelor's degree in nursing from the Ingram School of Nursing at McGill University in Montreal. At the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, she earned a master's degree in nursing as well as a doctor of nursing practice degree, with specialization in quality improvement, education and pediatric global health development. She is certified as a pediatric acute care nurse practitioner, critical care nurse and registered nurse first assistant.
Silvers is the founding director of the Center for Global Nursing at the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences. She works on research projects with partners around the world and is the nursing lead for UCSF as a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Emergency, Critical and Operative Care.
