Draft:Ora L. Strickland

Ora Lea Strickland, is dean and professor in the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Florida international University, Miami, FL.

Education

Strickland received a bachelor’s degree in nursing from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro in 1970. She took a master’s degree in maternal and child health nursing from Boston University, Massachusetts in 1972. In 1977 she earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in child development and family relations from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

Career

Strickland held professorships in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University in Atlanta, FA where she was the Independence Foundation Endowed Professor in Research; the School of Nursing of the University of Maryland at Baltimore; the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; and, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro. She held nursing practice positions at Harlem Hospital Center in New York City and Davidson County Health Department in Lexington, NC, where she practiced as a pediatric nurse practitioner.

Strickland is Founding Editor and was Senior Editor of the Journal of Nursing Measurement for 20 years, the first measurement journal in the nursing profession. 

Authorships

Strickland has won ten (10) “American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year” Awards. Strickland co-authored the first measurement textbook in nursing with Carolyn Waltz and Elizabeth Lenz, Measurement in Nursing and Health Research, now in its 5^th edition.  A former columnist for the Baltimore Sun, her column titled “Nurse’s Station[2],” which appeared weekly in the health magazine section of the Morning and Evening Baltimore Sun, won two health journalism awards in 1988. Strickland’s newspaper column educated the public by reporting evidence-based healthcare practices they could use that were based on nursing and other health research.

In the late 1970’s, Strickland spearheaded movement that encouraged nurse researchers to focus on measuring and documenting outcomes of nursing interventions, and she made major strides in moving the quality of measurement and psychometrics forward in healthcare research. She conceptualized, initiated and directed the Measurement of Clinical and Educational Nursing Outcomes Measurement Project, in which she and Carolyn Waltz led the improvement of the application of measurement principles and practices in nursing, and mentored 195 nurse researchers from across the United States in developing and testing more than 200 nursing clinical and educational outcome measures and instruments.

Contributions to nursing research

She was the first person to document the existence of Couvade Syndrome in expectant fathers in the United States and their relations with social determinants of health, paternal emotional stated and pregnancy planning. Her research on expectant fathers was featured in over 80 newspapers (including the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune) and on over 1,200 radio stations internationally. Strickland assisted the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the design of the $346 million Women’s Health Initiative (W[3]HI) as a consultant and was an Emory [4]University site co-principal investigator. Strickland also was Chairperson of the WHI Special Populations Committee which ensured that research methods and measurement approaches were culture and age appropriate, reliable, and valid. This landmark study, which included over 500 multidisciplinary investigators, greatly expanded the knowledge base on women’s healthcare and changed approaches to preventive healthcare of postmenopausal women related to menopausal hormone replacement therapy: and prevention and care of menopausal women for osteoporosis, breast cancer, colon cancer, stroke, cardiovascular disease and other related mental and physical health conditions.

Strickland also conducted many other funded research studies which identified genetic markers of cardiovascular disease in African American women; the nature of pain in women with cardiovascular disease; quality of life, pain and emotional impact of sickle cell disease on patients and family members; pain in breast cancer; prevention of drug abuse in Hispanic and African-American women; migraine headaches in peri-menopausal women; and, other women’s health topics. As a long-term member of the Centers for Disease Controls based Evaluation of Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention (EGAPP) Working Group[5], Strickland collaborated in evaluating the quality, accuracy, sensitivity, and usefulness of available genetic and genomics testing protocols for application in healthcare of the public, and collaborated in publishing several recommendations for healthcare providers.

Strickland played a key leadership role in founding the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Nursing Research (subsequently named institute for Nursing Research [NINR])[11], and is founding member of the Friends of the National Institute for Nursing Research (FNINR).  [6]In addition to her many other professional activities, she has been a member of the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health, a member of the National Center (Institute) for Nursing Research National Advisory Council, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the American Journal of Nursing Company, a member of the US Congressional Black Caucus Health Brain Trust, and served as a health policy congressional intern to former US Congressman Ralphe Metcalfe (D-111). She assisted in the writing of the first nurse practitioner practice act in the late 1970s for the state of North Carolina.

In 1987, she traveled to the Soviet Union with a team of U.S. experts and advised Premier Mikhail Gorbachev’s senior cabinet minister on their approach to international openness and cooperation in healthcare; she assisted five African countries in the development of their nursing practice acts; and she served as the nursing consultant to Botswana where she advised on approaches to nursing education, practice and licensure.

She’s one of the first healthcare professionals to produce the use videotapes for the continuing education of nurses and physicians.

Selected publications

• Strickland, Ora; Fishman, Dorothy J. (1994). Nursing Issues in the 1990s. Albany, N.Y: Delmar Thomson Learning. ISBN 978-0-8273-5467-8.
• Waltz, Carolyn Feher; Strickland, Ora; Lenz, Elizabeth R. (2016). Measurement in Nursing and Health Research. New York: Springer Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-8261-7061-3.
• Manson, JoAnn E.; Hsia, Judith; Johnson, Karen C.; Rossouw, Jacques E.; Assaf, Annlouise R.; Lasser, Norman L.; Trevisan, Maurizio; Black, Henry R.; Heckbert, Susan R.; Detrano, Robert; Strickland, Ora L.; Wong, Nathan D.; Crouse, John R.; Stein, Evan; Cushman, Mary (2003-08-07). "Estrogen plus Progestin and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease". New England Journal of Medicine. 349 (6): 523–534. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa030808. ISSN 0028-4793.
• Strickland, Ora L.; Moloney, Margaret F.; Dietrich, Alexa S.; Myerburg, Stuart; Cotsonis, George A.; Johnson, Robert V. (2003). "Measurement Issues Related to Data Collection on the World Wide Web". Advances in Nursing Science. 26 (4): 246. ISSN 0161-9268.
• Strickland, Ora L. (1987). "The Occurrence of Symptoms In Expectant Fathers". Nursing Research. 36 (3): 184. ISSN 0029-6562.

Honors and awards

She received honorary doctorates from the Ohio Medical College in 1992 and from Grand Valley State University in 1998.

Throughout her career, Strickland has received many awards and recognitions. Strickland was recognized early in her career for her outstanding contributions to nursing through her election to the American Academy of Nursing at age of 29 (1978), the youngest person inducted into the academic[7].  Strickland was selected as a Kellogg National Fellow, a fellowship program in leadership for the nation’s top young professionals. She was also an Endowment of the Humanities Fellow in Bioethics, an American Nurses’ Association Minority Doctoral Fellow, and selected as a Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellow.

In 2016 she was inducted in to the International Nursing Research Hall of Fame.

Some of Strickland’s awards include: The “Trailblazer Award” from the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) for her outstanding contributions to health; the Mary Elizabeth Carnegie Award [8]from the Southern Council on Collegiate Nursing for her outstanding contribution to health and nursing; induction into the NBNA Institution of Excellence; selection as the January entry in the 2003 Aetna Healthcare African American History Calendar which honored America’s top African American Nurses; honored as “The Best in Education” and an outstanding “Achiever” by Miami Today; selected Legacy Magazine as a Top Black Healthcare Professional; and as a South Florida “Women of Distinction and Caring” by Plaza Health Network. [9]

• Profiled in Contemporary Minority Leaders in Nursing, Kansas City, MO: American Nurses' Association, 1983. This book summarizes the contributions and philosophies of 57 Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native- American leaders in nursing. Listed in The Directory of Distinguished Americans, Third Edition, 1984.
• Profiled in The Path We Tread: Blacks in Nursing 1854-1984. (Mary Elizabeth Carnegie, Author). Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1986.
• Health Journalism Award. Presented by the Maryland Nurses' Foundation for the "Nurse's Station" column which appeared regularly in the Baltimore Sun newspaper during 1987-88, presented May, 1988.
• American Academy of Nursing Media Award for "Nurse's Station" column which appeared on a regular basis in the Baltimore Sun newspapers during 1987-88, presented October, 1988.
• 4 Four (4) AJN 1988 Book of the Year Awards in research and administration for each of the following: 1. Waltz, C.F. & Strickland, O. (Eds.) (1988). Measurement of nursing outcomes: Measuring client outcomes (Volume 1). New York: Springer Publishing Company. 2. Strickland, O., & Waltz, C.F. (Eds.) (1988). Measurement of nursing outcomes: Measuring nursing performance (Volume 2). New York: Springer Publishing Company. AJN 1991 Book of the Year Award in education for: Waltz, C.F. & Strickland, O. (Eds.) (1990). Measurement of nursing outcomes: Measuring clinical skills and professional development in education and practice (Volume 3). New York Springer Publishing Company.
• Two (2) AJN 1991 Book of the Year Awards in community health nursing and education for: Strickland, O. & Waltz, C.F. (Eds.) (1990). Measurement of nursing outcomes: Measuring client self-care and coping skills (Volume 4). New York: Springer Publishing Company. Nursing Achievement Award, Chi Eta Phi Sorority, Inc., Gamma Chi Chapter, Awarded May 1993.
• The 2002 Distinguished Scholar in Nursing Award, Presented by The Steinhardt School of Education, New York University, New York, New York. Featured in the 2003
• Trailblazer Award, Presented by the National Black Nurses Association, July 2003.
• American Journal of Nursing 2003 Book of the Year Award in Professional Development and Issues for: Strickland, O.L. & DiIorio, C.(2003).
• Inducted into the Institute of Excellence, National Black Nurses Association, August 2008. 5 The Mary Elizabeth Carnegie Award for Outstanding Contributions to Nursing,
• Featured in the Mount Airy News, “Mount Airy Native Makes Impact in Nursing,” January 2011. Featured in Miami Today, Selected as “The Achiever,” week of Thursday, December 13, 2012, pp. 1, 4-5.
• “See the Light” Awards Honoree, The Matthew Forbes Romer Foundation, Education & Research of Children’s Genetic Diseases of the Brain, March 2, 2014.
• Featured in Miami Today as Best in Education. “Best in Miami – Leaders in education on every level making a difference,” week of Thursday, June 4, 2015.
• Selected for the International Nursing Research Hall of Fame, Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society, 2017.
• AJN 2017 Book of the Year Award in Research (First Place). For Measurement in Nursing and Health Research (5th Edition), New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2017.
• The Nursing Education “See the Light’ Award. The Matthew Forbes Romer Foundation, Education & Research of Children’s Genetic Diseases of the Brain, March, 2018.

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>[1] Admin. (2022, January 21). Ora L. Strickland. North Carolina Nursing History. Retrieved May 3, 2023, from https://nursinghistory.appstate.edu/biographies/ora-strickland[2] Curriculum Vitae. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2023, from https://cnhs.fiu.edu/about/faculty-staff/_assets/cvs/olstrick.pdf[3] Member Bios|Working Group|EGAPP|CDC. (n.d.). https://www.cdc.gov/egappreviews/workingrp/bios.html

[4] Strickland appointed Dean at Florida International University. Strickland appointed dean at Florida International University | Woodruff Health Sciences Center | Emory University. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2023, from http://whsc.emory.edu/home/publications/nursing/emory-nursing/fall2011/strickland-appointed-dean-at-florida.html[5] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Member BIOS|Working Group|EGAPP|CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://www.cdc.gov/egappreviews/workingrp/bios.html

[7] Admin. (2022, January 21). Ora L. Strickland. North Carolina Nursing History. Retrieved May 3, 2023, from https://nursinghistory.appstate.edu/biographies/ora-strickland

[8] Breaking barriers. Breaking Barriers | Woodruff Health Sciences Center | Emory University. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2023, from http://whsc.emory.edu/home/publications/nursing/emory-nursing/winter2011/breaking-barriers.html

[9] Admin. (2019, August 22). Women of distinction and caring. SocialMiami. Retrieved May 3, 2023, from https://socialmiami.com/women-of-distinction-and-caring/[10] Strickland, O. L. (n.d.). Special session: Team leadership for advancing measurement, family and women's Health Research. stti.confex.com. Retrieved May 3, 2023, from https://stti.confex.com/stti/congrs16/webprogram/Session22898.html

[11] Cantelon, P. L. (2010, September). NINR: Bringing Science to Life. NINR NIH History Book. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://www.ninr.nih.gov/sites/files/docs/NINR_History_Book_508.pdf  

External links

• Ora Strickland, PhD, DSc (Hon), RN, FAAN on YouTube, interview on the American Academy of Nursing

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