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Marilyn R. McFarland, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, CTN-A is a Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Michigan-Flint. Dr. McFarland earned her PhD in Nursing with a focus in Transcultural Nursing from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan; Master of Science in Nursing from Wayne State with a major in Medical Surgical nursing and minors in Teaching in Nursing, Gerontological Nursing, and Transcultural Nursing; and Bachelor of Science in Nursing also from Wayne State. Her family nurse practitioner certificate was earned from Saginaw Valley State University in 2005.
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As a Certified Transcultural Nurse and as a Transcultural Nursing Author and Scholar, Dr. McFarland has been nationally and internationally recognized for her contributions to transcultural nursing by the Transcultural Nursing Society having received their 1993 Leininger Award for Excellence in Transcultural Nursing. She was also the 1994 Recipient of the Leininger Transcultural Nursing Award for Excellence and Creative Leadership in Transcultural Nursing and Human Care from Wayne State University, College of Nursing. In addition to individually publishing numerous book chapters and articles, Dr. McFarland co-authored two texts with Dr. Madeleine Leininger: Culture Care Diversity and Universality: A Worldwide Nursing Theory (2006) and Transcultural Nursing: Concepts, Theories, Research, & Practice (2002), which was the recipient of the 2003 American Journal of Nursing’s Book of the Year Award. Published in 2015, she co-authored the third edition of Leininger’s Culture Care Diversity and Universality: A Worldwide Nursing Theory with Dr. Hiba Wehbe-Alamah.
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Dr. McFarland is a past editor of the Journal of the Transcultural Nursing; past chair of the Transcultural Nursing Certification Commission whose members developed a revised certification examination process under her guidance; and past member of the TCNS Board as well as serving on numerous Society committees. With Dr. Leininger, Dr. McFarland co-presented the 2011 Keynote Address at the 37th Annual TCNS International Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is also a member of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties; Michigan Council of Nurse Practitioners; American Nurses’ Association; the Michigan Nurses’ Association; and ANA-Michigan (formerly RN-AIM). As a career-long member of Sigma Theta Tau International, she is active in the local Pi Delta chapter based at UM-Flint.
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Dr. McFarland has taught at the undergraduate level in the areas of gerontology, fundamentals of nursing, and health assessment. She currently teaches nursing at the graduate level with focus on transcultural health care, advanced practice nursing role development, and graduate translational research. She has served on many doctoral nursing dissertation committees nationally as well as on master’s theses committees statewide and currently supervises numerous graduate-level translational research projects. Her clinical practice is focused on diverse and underserved clients in pediatric private practice and in caring for underserved women at a local health department family planning clinic.
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As a leader in transcultural nursing, Dr. McFarland has studied, practiced, consulted, and lectured throughout the United States and in various parts of Europe, Kenya, Taiwan, and Australia. She has conducted transcultural research studies focused on Polish, Anglo-American, African-American, Mexican-American, and German-American elders, using Leininger’s Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality as well as co-participating in a metasynthesis of culture care theory research studies guided by the Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality. Along with Dr. Wehbe-Alamah and Dr. Margaret Andrews, Dr. McFarland is currently planning to conduct an ethnohistorical study of key transcultural scholars and their contributions to the discipline. Her scholarly interests include the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL); the translation of evidenced-based research into clinical practice; and the integration of transcultural nursing theory into nurse practitioner practice across the lifespan and in diverse settings.
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Hiba B. Wehbe-Alamah, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, CTN-A is a Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Michigan-Flint. Dr. Wehbe-Alamah earned her PhD degree and post Master’s certificate in Transcultural Nursing from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Master of Science in Nursing (Family Nurse Practitioner) and Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, Michigan. She holds an advanced-level certification in transcultural nursing and was inducted as a Transcultural Nursing Scholar in 2011 by the Transcultural Nursing Society. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the University of Michigan-Flint Scholarly or Creative Achievement Award (2017), Teaching of Excellence Award (2016), and Provost Innovative Teaching Prize (2015); the Transcultural Nursing Society Madeleine M. Leininger Award (2015); and the National American Arab Nurses’ Association Angel of Mercy Award (2014).
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As a member of the Transcultural Nursing Society, National American Arab Nurses Association, National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties, Michigan Council of Nurse Practitioners, American Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, and Sigma Theta Tau International, Dr. Wehbe-Alamah is nationally and internationally known for her contributions to Transcultural Nursing and Health Care. She has presented, guest-lectured, and published in the United States, Australia, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and played a key role in providing cultural competence educational training to registered nurses, advanced practice nurses, nursing faculty, nursing students, and diverse health care providers in 45 states and the District of Columbia as part of a 3-year federally funded Nurse Education, Practice, and Retention grant project entitled Developing Nurses’ Cultural Competencies: Evidence-based and Best Practices.
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Dr. Wehbe-Alamah led an interdisciplinary project involving faculty and students from Nursing, Computer Science, and Art departments at the University of Michigan-Flint to create the first prototype for a transcultural computer-based simulation game. As a member of the Transcultural Nursing Society Certification Commission, she co-developed an international online certification exam for advanced transcultural nurses and contributed test questions to the basic transcultural nursing certification exam for registered nurses. In addition, she teaches and advises nursing students at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels in courses focused on women’s health and transcultural health care. She chairs many doctoral translational research projects and is a member of numerous doctoral dissertation committees. Her clinical practice centers on women’s health and the underinsured at a local community health department. Dr. Wehbe-Alamah’s scholarly and research interests include obesity; women’s health; mental health; primary care; creative teaching methodologies; computer simulation games; technology use in the academic setting; Asian, African-American, and Middle-Eastern health and well-being; health disparities; cultural healers and generic/folk beliefs and practices; and promoting cultural competence for diverse health care providers, nursing students, practicing nurses, and nursing faculty.