Celebrating the Graduate School of Nursing's Women Faculty Members – Past and Present
By Sharon Holland and Vivian Mason
[Note: This is the first of a series of articles for Women’s History Month that highlight the significant contributions of USU's female faculty members, starting with four early faculty from the Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing (GSN).]
Women’s History Month highlights the contributions of women in history and contemporary society. During Women’s History Month, we remind ourselves of the achievements of influential USU women in medicine and science from yesterday and today―whether they are nurses, physicians, dentists, scientists, researchers, or educators. These featured faculty members barely scratch the surface of the many outstanding women from throughout USU’s history and their contributions to the university.
Faye Glenn Abdellah, EdD, ScD, RN, FAAN
Founding Dean and Professor Emerita
Dr. Faye Glenn Abdellah was founding Dean of the Uniformed Services University of the Health
Sciences Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing, and a retired Rear Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service. Abdellah was a pioneer and internationally recognized leader in nursing whose contributions substantially improved the nation’s health.
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| Dr. Faye Glenn Abdellah, founding Dean of USU's Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing. (Photo credit: Tom Balfour, USU) |
In 1937, 18-year-old Faye Abdellah witnessed the explosion of the German passenger airship, Hindenburg, in Lakehurst, New Jersey, which became a crucial turning point in her life. In an interview years later for Advance for Nurses, she said, “I could see people jumping from the zeppelin and didn’t know how I would take care of them, so I vowed that I would learn nursing.”
Abdellah earned a nursing diploma from the Ann May School of Nursing in Neptune, New Jersey, undergraduate, master and doctoral degrees from Columbia University, New York, and completed graduate work in the sciences from Rutgers University. She authored more than 153 publications, some translated into six languages, including her seminal works, “Better Nursing Care Through Nursing Research” and “Patient Centered Approached to Nursing,” which forever changed the focus of nursing theory from disease-centered to patient-centered.
She was the recipient of twelve honorary university degrees, and numerous awards, including the prestigious Allied Signal Award in 1989 and the Institute of Medicine’s Gustav O. Lienhard Award in 1992, all recognizing her innovative work in nursing research and health care.
Abdellah was the first nurse and the first woman to serve as Deputy Surgeon General, with Vice Adm. (Dr.) C. Everett Koop, and was first nurse to hold the rank of Rear Admiral (upper half). Her incredible leadership abilities resulted in many truly remarkable accomplishments, including the development of the first tested coronary care unit, saving thousands of lives.
Abdellah was renowned as an expert in health policies related to long-term care, the developmentally disabled, aging, hospice, and AIDS. In 1989, she retired from the Public Health Service, and shortly thereafter, Congress directed the initiation of a demonstration program at USU for the preparation of family nurse practitioners to meet the needs of the uniformed services. Abdellah stepped forward to assist then-USU President Dr. James A. Zimble establish the GSN in 1993, and under her leadership the GSN grew from a single master’s degree program with two students, to a premier, fully accredited graduate school.
Today, the GSN offers advanced practice and research doctoral degrees, and more than 1,000 nurse scientists, nurse anesthetists, clinical specialists, and family, women’s health and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner alumni are advancing military, veteran and federal health.
Abdellah was a charter Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, later serving as the Academy’s President and in 1994 she was one of the first Fellows to receive the Academy’s highest honor, the “Living Legend’’ Award.
In 1999, she was elected to the Hall of Fame for Distinguished Graduates and Scholars at Columbia University, and the following year, was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame for a lifetime spent establishing and leading essential health care programs for the nation. In acknowledging the recognition, Abdellah said, “We cannot wait for the world to change... Those of us with intelligence, purpose, and vision must take the lead and change the world. Let us move forward together! ... I promise never to rest until my work has been completed.”
In 2001 she received the “Breaking Ground in Women’s Health Award,” and in 2012, she was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame. Abdellah retired from USU in 2002 after 49 years of service to the Federal government and the nation. She passed away in 2017 at the age of 97.
Regina C. Aune, PhD, MSN
Colonel, U.S. Air Force (ret.), Nurse Corps
Former Chair, Department of Nursing Research
Former Commandant
Former Deputy Brigade Commander
Retired Air Force Colonel Regina C. Aune, who served as chair of the Department of Nursing Research, Commandant of the Graduate School of Nursing and Deputy Brigade Commander at USU in the mid-1990s, made significant contributions to military medicine and specifically to the field of aeromedical evacuation throughout her career.
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| Retired Air Force Colonel Regina C. Aune, chair of the Department of Nursing Research, former Commandant of the GSN and Deputy Brigade Commander at USU. |
Eventually, a full-scale evacuation was ordered for Vietnam. Aune’s squadron was given the command to fly a mission into Saigon. Unfortunately, the plane to be used was a C-5, on which none of the medical team had been trained. As a result, the group was mixed and matched with those who had C-9 experience and those who had transport experience; however, neither the C-5 pilot nor the co-pilot had had experience flying medevac missions. The medical team consisted of Aune, as medical crew director, an assistant nurse, and three medical technicians.
Once in Saigon, the crew was to be part of a massive effort, dubbed “Operation Babylift” to evacuate 2,000 orphans, many of them Amerasian children, to the U.S. Several Air Force planes participated in the effort. Aune assigned herself to the cargo hold where there was the greatest need for patient care.
Shortly after the C-5, the largest aircraft in the world (Aune called it “the flying whale”), was airborne, the medical crew began to attend to passengers. Aune was assisting a woman who became very ill. She climbed the rear compartment ladder to the main cabin to retrieve some medicine for the woman. Aune knelt on the grate at the rear of the upper deck, getting the medication, when a loadmaster came over to ask if she needed anything. She had just told him ‘no’ when an explosion occurred. A rapid decompression took place, followed by a sudden drop in temperature and a thick fog, combined with dust and debris from inside the airplane. As the dust settled, Aune could see that the entire back end of the plane was missing. The rear cargo door had burst open, damaging the plane’s rudder and stabilizer, causing the sudden decompression. One of the loadmasters was hanging onto the ladder that Aune had climbed moments before, his legs dangling in the open air, desperately trying to keep from being sucked out. Aune instinctively moved to get oxygen for the main and those trying to rescue him.
Eventually they succeeded in bring the senior master sergeant back inside the plane. While Aune tended to the passengers in the cabin, the aircraft commander and co-pilot struggled to keep the C-5 aloft. They were 18 miles from Saigon and 23,000 feet up. They immediately started to descend, trying to return to the airport from which they had just come. Ground crews prepared for a crash landing.
Unfortunately, the aircrew couldn’t make it to Saigon and impacted with the ground two miles from the airport. The plane once again became airborne, crossed over a river and bumped along the ground until it hit hard one last time, coming to rest in a muddy rice paddy. Because communications had been severed in the explosion, no one knew the situation below in the cargo compartment. It was completely destroyed in the crash, killing all but eight people in that section. Aune was thrown across the airplane. She was covered in mud, bleeding heavily and laboring with a broken right foot and fractured leg.
"Aune was the first female in its history to receive the Cheney Award and to date is one of only three female recipients."
As the children began to cry, Aune took stock of the passengers in the cabin, who seemed mostly to be fine, and opened the emergency window exit. Helicopters arrived but couldn’t land because of the mud in the rice paddy. They hovered several feet off the ground while Aune and others evacuated the children from the plane, walking backwards to avoid the stinging muddy rotor wash. Trying to bend over to pick up a child who was about to slip in the mud, Aune realized she couldn’t bend. She had broken a bone in her back. The commander on scene stared in disbelief at Aune, who was barely recognizable underneath the blood and mud covering her. Aune, mustering all of the military bearing she could, requested that she be relieved of her duties because of her injuries. And then she fainted.
She later awoke in the Air Force hospital at Clark Air Base, where she learned that 175 people on board the plane had survived through acts of heroism such as hers.
The following year, Aune received the Cheney Award for her heroic efforts. The Cheney Award, named for 1st Lt. William Cheney, was established in 1927, and is awarded to an airman for an act of valor, extreme fortitude or self-sacrifice in a humanitarian interest, performed in connection with aircraft. Aune was the first female in its history to receive the award and to date is one of only three female recipients.
Aune went on to earn a Master of Science in Nursing degree in 1979 and then a Doctorate of Philosophy four years later. She was then assigned to USU’s Graduate School of Nursing, and following that assignment, she commanded the 437th Medical Operations Squadron and the 437th Medical Group at Charleston Air Force Base, the 377th Medical Group at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, the 59th Medical Group at Lackland Air Force Base, and the 386th Expeditionary Medical Group in Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
In 2007, Aune was inducted into the Airlift/Tanker Association Hall of Fame representing all eras and aspects of the Aeromedical Evacuation mission, and retired after 28 years of service. Upon her retirement, Aune returned to academia, serving as the Dean of Galen College of Nursing in San Antonio, Texas. She is now retired.
E. Jane McCarthy, PhD, CRNA
CAPT, USPHS (ret.)
Former Chair, Department of Anesthesia Nursing
Dr. Elizabeth “Jane” McCarthy is a 1985 graduate of USU’s Doctor of Philosophy degree program in Physiology. McCarthy later returned to USU’s Graduate School of Nursing, where she developed the Nurse Anesthesia program in the late 1990s as chair of the Department of Anesthesia Nursing. The first CRNA class graduated in December 2002.
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| Dr. E. Jane McCarthy, former chair of the Department of Anesthesia Nursing at USU's GSN. (Courtesy photo) |
At age 22, with less than a year under her belt as an Army nurse working in the Intensive Care Unit and Recovery Room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., McCarthy was deployed to support the 95th Evacuation Hospital in DaNang. She worked as a triage nurse in the pre-operative and receiving areas, taking care of the steady stream of casualties.
She returned home, completed nurse anesthesia education at the Fairfax Hospital Nurse Anesthesia Program in Falls Church, Virginia in 1976, and worked as a nurse anesthetist for several years. In 1985, she completed her Ph.D. degree in physiology at USU.
Following graduation, she pursued a fellowship at the Navy Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and joined the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, where she worked in health policy and education. She also worked as a regulatory scientist for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), reviewing anesthesia and respiratory medical devices in the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health, as the Scientific Advisor to the FDA Associate Commissioner and as the Science Education Advisor for the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
In addition to the USU Graduate School of Nursing anesthesia program, McCarthy also developed a nurse anesthesia program for the University of Maryland School of Nursing where she continues part-time as an educational grants consultant for the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
McCarthy has been a member of the Malignant Hyperthermia Association of the United States Professional Advisory Committee since 1987 and was one of the first nurse anesthetists to be recognized as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 1994. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, and is active with the District of Columbia Association of Nurse Anesthetists (DCANA) where she has directed the DCANA Annual Anesthesia Safety Conference for the past 20 years for more than 200 CRNAs and students each year from around the country.
In 2007, Captain McCarthy retired from the PHS but remained in Maryland, where she has been actively engaged in veterans’ issues. McCarthy served as the first woman veteran on the Montgomery County Commission on Veterans Affairs and her primary goal on the Commission was to improve care for veterans in Montgomery County, especially those returning from war experiencing the difficulties of posttraumatic stress.
Presently, Dr. McCarthy has a part-time academic appointment and is teaching graduate nursing students at the University of North Florida, Drexel University and University of Maryland.
Marilyn W. Edmunds, PhD, ANP, GNP, FAANP
Former Chair, Department of Family Nurse Practitioner
Dr. Marilyn Edmunds is credited with the establishment of the GSN’s Family Nurse Practitioner
program. Dr. Faye Abdellah, founding dean of the GSN, sought Edmunds for the task because of her vision and expertise. Edmunds has been a leader in nursing education since 1970. She has educated thousands of students in Illinois, Utah, and Maryland. In addition to USU’s nurse practitioner program, Edmunds envisioned and implemented the first master's level nurse practitioner program at the University of Maryland at Baltimore and served as faculty on the master's and doctoral level for 25 years. She directed its geriatric nurse practitioner program as well.
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| Dr. Marilyn W. Edmunds, a leader in nursing education since 1970, is credited with the establishment of GSN's Family Nurse Practitioner program. (Courtesy photo) |
Edmunds has mentored hundreds of NPs on their authorship of professional articles. Her award-winning books, “Pharmacology for the Primary Care Provider” required by many NP programs, and “Procedures for the Primary Care Provider” and have contributed to nurses’ education internationally and influenced health care policy development. She lobbied Medscape for many years to provide nursing topics and continuing education, and as a direct result of her efforts, more nurses participate in Medscape than any other type of health care professional.
In 2005 Elsevier, one of the world’s leading healthcare and scientific publishers, formed a publishing partnership with the American College of Nurse Practitioners. The joint effort, The Journal for Nurse Practitioners (TJNP) has become an invaluable resource for nurse practitioners, publishing peer-reviewed articles on clinical practice, continuing education, opinions, and commentary on pressing legislative, regulatory, and clinical practice issues. Edmunds was chosen as its first editor-in-chief. Under her leadership, TJNP evolved to the most widely-read publication for NPs. The TJNP later honored her by creating an award in her name that recognizes excellence in writing and encourages writing for publication. She also served as a Contributing and Associate Editor of The Nurse Practitioner Journal, and was a contributing editor to NP News, and NP World News.
Edmunds later established NP Education Associates, Inc., which became an American Nurses Credentialing Center-accredited continuing education provider which offered continuing education conferences across the U.S. for more than a decade to thousands of nurse practitioners.
In 2019, the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award on Edmunds to recognize her pioneering leadership of new NP programs, and her tireless promotion of the role of NPs through political, media, organizational and academic processes.
Today, Dr. Edmunds holds an appointment as adjunct faculty with John Hopkins University in Baltimore.
