This article is from the EMU News Archive. Current EMU new is available at www.emu.edu/news

EMU Well-Represented at Nursing Conference

Keynote speaker Dr. John Lowe with former first lady Rosalynn Carter

John Lowe, an EMU alumnus, will be keynote speaker for an annual development day for area nursing professionals.

Dr. Lowe, a 1981 graduate, will speak at 9 a.m. Thursday, Apr. 19, at the Pi Mu-at-Large-Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing that includes EMU and JMU faculty and students. The event is cosponsored by District IX of the Virginia Nurses Association.

The conference will be held 9 a.m.-3:15 p.m. in the Festival Conference and Student Center at JMU.

'Wisdom of Diversity'

Lowe, an associate professor of nursing at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla., will speak on the theme, "Embracing and Connecting to the Wisdom of Diversity." He is a Cherokee tribal member and one of only 13 Native American nurses in the United States with a doctoral degree.

Lowe has provided health care in such diverse areas as Tanzania, East Africa; People’s Republic of China; Jamaica; and Costa Rica. He has served as a consultant to several Native American tribes, Indian Health Service and to the United States government concerning Native American health issues.

Lowe’s research has focused on the development of an intervention for substance abuse and HIV/AIDS risk reduction among Native American youth.

Melody Cash and Laura Yoder of EMU's nursing department faculty and alumni Judith Trumbo, Laura Quass, Wanda Revercomb, Dana Breeding, Michelle Corbin, Mike Henning, Tammy Kiser and Diane Moody will lead "breakout" sessions on health care issues along with numerous other local nurses.

Undergraduate nursing students Shelley Burkholder, Lindsey Fosnight, Heather Keim, Sherry Owens and Alisa Pritcett will lead a session on "Preventing Communicable Disease Spread in Correctional Centers."

Lowe will also address an EMU nursing class 1:40 p.m. Wednesday, Apr. 18, in Strite Auditorium of the Campus Center.

For more information on the honor society meeting, contact Ann G. Hershberger, professor of nursing at EMU, at 432-4192.

— article by: Jim Bishop; posted April 17, 2007