Science of Learning FRG

Catherine A. Bailey, PhD, MS, RN, CNE, Associate Professor - Dallas Campus

Dr. Bailey is certified as a Nurse Educator. She has 17 years of teaching experience, specializing in Adult Health or Acute Health Care Issues. She teaches in Adult Health II (undergraduate level), Research and Quality Improvement in Nursing (Master’s level), and DNP Scholarly Projects.  The research course centers around critiques of research projects and evidence based practices. She has worked as a long time member and chair of the TWU IRB Committee on the Dallas campus. Her main area of study has been associated with simulated experiences in the Simulation Lab. From 2006 to 2012, she worked as a consultant for METI/CAE Healthcare and traveled to demonstrate the use of High Fidelity Simulation to Schools of Nursing.  Catherine developed an elective course with multiple high fidelity appropriate scenarios, authored case studies and developed Simulated Scenario Experiences (SCE’s) (published by METI and sold to Elsevier), and authored a textbook chapter on Simulation in Innovative Teaching Strategies in Nursing and Related Health Professions. More recently she has been working on a QI project with simulated experiences for students in Adult Health II and with Dr. Mikyoung Lee with a study on a mobile application associated with handoffs in the clinical setting.

Rebecca Boruff, MS, RN

Assistant Clinical Professor
Dallas Campus

Ms. Boruff was a clinical nurse at Parkland Hospital for 25 years. She earned her master's degree from TWU in 2014 and worked as Nursing Lab Administrator on the Dallas campus for 4 years. She is now in her second year as clinical faculty.  She has a keen interest in hands on learning including interactive lectures and simulation.

Paula C. Clutter PhD, RN, CNL, CNE, CENP, CMSRN

Associate Professor
Houston campus. 

Dr. Clutter has over 30 years of nursing experience and maintains national certification in the areas of nursing education, executive nursing practice, clinical nurse leader and medical-surgical nursing. Her nursing experience has been in a variety of clinical, educational and leadership roles in military hospitals. She retired on 1 June 2016 from the United States Air Force Reserves Nurse Corp. She was a member of the Academic Center for Evidence-Based Practice (ACE) Center at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio School of Nursing and participated in initiatives to advance evidence-based quality improvement through research, education and clinical practice. Her current research program focuses on undergraduate students and simulation using qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her research interests are in evidence-based practice, quality improvement, patient safety, leadership and management, and clinical simulation.Dr. Clutter has over 30 years of nursing experience and maintains national certification in the areas of nursing education, executive nursing practice, clinical nurse leader and medical-surgical nursing. Her nursing experience has been in a variety of clinical, educational and leadership roles in military hospitals. She retired on 1 June 2016 from the United States Air Force Reserves Nurse Corp. She was a member of the Academic Center for Evidence-Based Practice (ACE) Center at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio School of Nursing and participated in initiatives to advance evidence-based quality improvement through research, education and clinical practice. Her current research program focuses on undergraduate students and simulation using qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her research interests are in evidence-based practice, quality improvement, patient safety, leadership and management, and clinical simulation.

Louise Comer, MS, RN, CNE, LCCE

Visiting Clinical Instructor for the RN-BS program
Denton campus.

Ms. Comer has been in nursing for 18 years. As an RN, she worked both in the hospital and community setting with a specialty in maternal/child health. Since she received her Masters in Nursing Education in 2009 at TWU, she taught in a traditional baccalaureate program at Texas Christian University for 4 years and now teaches in the RN-BS program at TWU for the past 5 years. During her time as faculty at both universities, Louise has served on multiple committees assisting with curriculum revisions, by-law revisions, and now assists with the coordination of the RN-BS program. She is a certified nurse educator as well as a Lamaze certified childbirth educator, and she currently still teaches childbirth classes in the Fort Worth area. Her research focus is on innovative strategies for nursing education as well as maternal health. Louise has co-authored two publications pertaining to maternal health and presented at conferences with the most recent being a podium presentation at the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science conference in 2016.

Sharon A. Denham, PhD, RN, CNE,

Professor, Houston J. & Florence A. Doswell Endowed Chair in Nursing for Teaching Excellence
Dallas Campus

Sharon A. Denham, PhD, RN, CNE, Professor, Houston J. & Florence A. Doswell Endowed Chair in Nursing for Teaching Excellence – Dallas Campus. Dr. Denham is a Professor Emeritus from Ohio University after teaching there for 25+ years and recognized as a Certified Nurse Educator by the National League of Nursing. Her practice and scholarship focus on family care, community health, management of type 2 diabetes, and Appalachian health risks. She has collaborated on numerous grants (e.g., HRSA, NIH) to fund her work. She received CDC support from the National Diabetes Education Program to serve in leadership capacity to develop a family-focused prevention of type 2 diabetes toolkit in the Appalachian region (i.e., Diabetes: A Family Matter). Her text entitled Family Health: A Framework for Nursing provides an ecological lens to envision holistic nursing perspectives. She served as lead editor for the textbook Family Focused Nursing Practice (2016). Through funding from a VA Nursing Academic Partnership (VANAP) grant she has collaborated in creating veteran-centric education for undergraduate nursing students and led the development of a curriculum for a Post-Baccalaureate Nurse Residency (PBNR) program at the VA North Texas Health Care System. She has more than 70 national and given more than 200 regional, national, and international presentations, many of which are family focused.

Laura Kubin, PhD, RN, CPN, CHES

Associate Professor
Dallas Campus. 

Laura Kubin, PhD, RN, CPN, CHES, Associate Professor – Dallas Campus. Dr. Kubin has 30 years of experience in the nursing profession specializing in child health nursing, nursing education and health promotion. She has conducted research related to childhood immunizations and pain management. Her current research program focuses on instructional strategies and simulation. She has published and presented throughout the US and internationally. She has served on the board of The Society of Pediatric Nurses and several committees of the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning, as well as, community advisory boards for Dallas County and Children’s Health: Beyond ABC.

Mikyoung A. Lee, Ph.D., RN

Associate Professor
Denton Campus

Dr. Lee's research deals with building and testing the HIT capacity for nursing data acquisition, nursing effectiveness measurement, big data analytics, information exchange, and consumer health informatics. She has developed an automated extraction software, using natural language processing, to transform nursing narratives into quantifiable nursing interventions and outcomes data in standardized nursing terminologies. She developed a mobile app for nursing handoff and conducted its feasibility testing in clinical and educational settings. She has worked on big data nursing science projects with national research working groups and the database building and analytics her interdisciplinary informatics research team. Her research of consumer health informatics has focused on the enhancement of laypersons’ knowledge/skills of health promotion management as well as the expansion of nurses’ role through survey study, website evaluation, and web mining. She has been interested in developing teaching pedagogies to improve informatics competencies of nursing students.

Ann Malecha, PhD, RN, CNE, PHNA-BC

Professor
Houston Campus. 

Dr. Malecha has over 30 years of experience in the nursing profession specializing in nursing education and public health/community health nursing. She has worked as an adult nurse practitioner in the occupational health and home health care settings. She has conducted research related to preventing violence against women in various community settings. Her current research program focuses on nursing student stress and strategies to promote academic success. She has published and presented throughout the US and internationally; most recently in 2017 at the STTI’s 28^th International Research Congress in Dublin, Ireland. She has served on various boards including the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses and the Southern Nursing Research Society as well as community advisory boards for Houston Harris Health and Fort Bend County Women’s Center.

Kristine Morris, MS, RN, CNE

Associate Clinical Professor, Interim Director of Undergraduate Education
Dallas Campus

Ms. Morris has over 25 years of experience in adult health nursing, including care of spinal cord injured veterans and critically ill adults. She is in her 11th year of teaching undergraduate nursing students. Ms. Morris is pursuing a PhD in Higher Education from the University of North Texas. Her research interests include student success in nursing school and readiness for the nursing licensure exam, NCLEX-RN. She currently serves as director of the undergraduate nursing program at TWU's Dallas Center.

Leslie S. Nelson, PhD, RN

Assistant Professor
Houston Campus. 

Dr. Nelson has over 40 years of experience in the nursing profession. While her primary area of nursing expertise is Adult Critical Care she has held a variety of positions in medical-surgical units as a staff nurse, charge nurse, and nurse manager and as a staff education director in an acute long term care setting. Her current program of research focuses on the use of technology in nursing education to support learning outcomes. Dr. Nelson was instrumental in the development of a half simulation and half hospital model for Junior II nursing students in their first medical-surgical course and is part of a team currently conducting research on student perceptions of that experience. Additionally, she is conducting research on the impact of Tegrity usage to capture lecture content on undergraduate nursing student’s grades and attendance. Dr. Nelson is currently serving as Senior Counselor for Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society and is a member of the American Association of Critical Nurses, and the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INASCL).

Margaret Peters, MS, RN, 

Assistant Professor
Dallas Campus. 

Ms. Peters has spent 48 years in nursing including years in clinical nursing--medical-surgical, critical care, and diabetes education with a focus on the visually impaired with diabetes. For 40 years, she has taught undergraduate clinical nursing in medical-surgical, transition to practice, and diabetes nursing. Her research interests include clinical decision making development and factors influencing student success.

Jo-Ann Stankus, Ph.D., RN

Assistant Professor, Coordinator RN BS/MS Program
Denton Campus. 

Dr. Stankus works with undergraduate students who want to become nurses.  As the Coordinator for the RN BS/MS program, Dr. Stankus is a liaison with Community Colleges in the successful transition of ADN students in completing their education and receiving a Bachelor’s degree with a major in nursing. Dr. Stankus also works with the first time in college (FTIC) students in meeting the challenges in moving from high school to the university environment.  Her current focus of research is factors affecting nursing student success.

Cecilia Elaine Wilson, PhD, RN, CPN

Associate Clinical Professor
Dallas Campus

Dr. Wilson has taught in the undergraduate nursing program for 21 years guiding nursing students in experiential experiences, such as clinical, simulations, and labs. Her expertise is in nursing education, and she has developed and teaches three courses in the Master’s level online nursing education program. Her research experience has been focused on nursing education with the undergraduate nursing student. She also conducted research involving nursing faculty and academic integrity.

Mary Grace Yousef, MS, RN, CNE

Assistant Clinical Professor
Dallas Campus

Ms. Yousef has over 15 years of experience in the nursing profession specializing in nursing education, medical-surgical, critical care, and palliative nursing. She has worked as a critical care nurse and palliative care nurse at Baylor in Dallas and as a clinical education specialist at THR corporate office. She has been involved in several committees and nursing associations and has presented in nursing conferences. She is an active member of the STTI, Beta Beta Chapter Governance Committee. Her research interest focuses on active learning strategies to facilitate student engagement and deeper learning in the classroom.