Global Health Nursing

Michele J. Upvall, PhD, RN, FNP, is Professor of Nursing, Carlow University, Pittsburgh, PA. She has studied the collaborative practises of nursing with indigenous healers in southern Africa and the Navajo Nation in the U.S. and has worked with Somali refugee women and their families, nurses and other health care providers in Bhutan, Cambodia and Botswana and rural populations in Ghana. Dr. Upvall developed and coordinated the first BSN programme for Navajo and Hopi students in Ganado, AZ while on faculty at the Northern Arizona University. She was Director of the prelicensure BSN and RN to BSN programmes in the Aga Khan University School of Nursing in Karachi, Pakistan where she also implemented the first Masters of Nursing programme in the country. She facilitated the growth of nursing programmes at Carlow University from a division to School of Nursing as Associate Dean and Director and developed a state-of-the-art nursing skills laboratory, facilitated curriculum revision for both undergraduate and graduate nursing programmes and was instrumental in developing the DNP programme. Dr. Upvall has published numerous research-based and project development articles with global health nursing colleagues in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters based upon her experiences in the US and abroad. She is is a Fellow of the AACN Leadership for Academic Nursing programmes and recipient of the Cameo of Caring Nurse Educator Award and the Community Service Award from Sigma Theta Tau International Lambda Omicron chapter. She is active in the Pennsylvania State Nurses' Association and is peer reviewer for a variety of nursing and other health care related journals. Jeanne Leffers, PhD, RN, is currently Professor Emeritus of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in Dartmouth, MA, where she taught in the undergraduate and graduate programmes in nursing, was the former Graduate Program Director and served the College of Nursing with her expertise in public health, environmental health and global heath. At the University she was involved with programmes to advance faculty development for diversity initiatives, to strengthen the academic programmes in sustainable development and with international student programmes to engage students in global learning. She continues to teach at the University of Rhode Island and at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Dr. Leffers has published in the areas of public health nursing, environmental health and global health, including co-authoring the book Volunteering at Home and Abroad: The Essential Guide for Nurses with Julia Plotnick. She has also been instrumental in the development of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments' website www.anhe.org. Dr. Leffers is on the Steering Committee of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) and the Nursing Education Steering Committee of Health Volunteers Overseas where she is the nurse coordinator for the nursing education programme in Uganda. In addition, she is a member of the EPA Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC). Locally she serves on the board of directors for the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center and the VNA of Southeastern Massachusetts.