Dorothy J. Wiley, Ph.D., Grossmont College, Nursing 1971-77; Walk of Fame Honoree

Professor at UCLA in the School of Nursing; research nurse, part of team that got approval for Gardasil, a drug for HPV.

Dorothy J. Wiley praised her nursing professors at Grossmont for being in the business of making dreams come true.

“The people who made a difference in my life embraced that philosophy, whether they articulate it or not,” she said. “I do that with my students because people did that for me.”

Wiley works as a professor of nursing at UCLA, after earning her nursing degree from Grossmont, a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in maternal and child public health at San Diego State University and a doctorate in epidemiology at UCLA.

She was one of the investigators from across the country working with Merck & Co. to win approval for Gardasil, a drug for HPV. She also worked for the Los Angeles County Health Department in the epidemiology program.

“One of the things that’s important, that we are losing sight of for the master plan in education, is that places like Grossmont allow people who don’t have other opportunities to get their feet on the ground and figure out what they can and want to do, to be able to see all the possibilities in life,” Wiley said.