Candidate Information

In what ways are you qualified for this position and what leadership experience do you have in the honor society and other organizations?
I am seeking nomination as a candidate for the International Governance Committee. I believe I have significant experience within Sigma Theta Tau International that would qualify me. In particular, I was elected and served on the International Leadership Succession Committee during the 2005-2007 Biennium. One of our committee's most important accomplishments is that we established a ballot that ensured that at least one Director's position would be filled with an international candidate, in order to more concretely operationalize our desire to be a truly international organization. I have also participated on Sigma's Foundation Chapter Philanthropy Committee in 2006-2007. In addition, I have worked with SITI staff to help develop and organize the Speed Connect event for new members. On a local level, I have served as chapter president and past-president, as well as counselor, secretary, outreach coordinator, and philanthropy chair. I have had extensive experience with governance issues on a local level through my work in our chapter. I have served as Chapter Delegate at the last two biennia, and have actively participated in the governance process in that capacity. I have enthusiastically remained connected to the mission and vision statements of the various STTI presidents and have embraced and promoted them within my own local chapter. Through my experiences and through participating in many STTI conferences and events, I feel that I have a solid understanding of the organizational structure of STTI and its various opportunities and challenges.
In addition to my local and international Sigma experience, I also believe that I have qualities and talents derived through personal and professional experiences that I would draw upon in this position. First and foremost, I believe that my training as a psychiatric advanced practice nurse and clinical psychologist has honed my skills of active listening, astute assessment, and careful conceptualization - all of which allow me to see problems and concerns in complex, multi-faceted ways. I feel that I am particularly capable of acknowledging multiple viewpoints and helping to achieve consensus, even on particularly challenging topics. In the case of STTI, as with any organization, there is a dynamic tension between tradition and change. I believe that I have the ability to enter that dialogue and help the organization emerge an even better one. This is particularly important for the position of Governance Committee member, which is charged with maintaining the integrity of the organization, while also encouraging flexibility and innovation to change with changing times.
I also believe that my experiences as an educator and a practitioner, and more recently a researcher, allow me to understand the unique perspectives of the diverse STTI membership, who include clinicians, educators, and researchers. I have served in other leadership positions at various points in my career - as chair of committees, task forces, and other endeavors. I am a dedicated, hard-working, and forward-thinking individual. I feel that I am a proponent of innovation and am a great team player. In my work as a clinician and educator, I have worked toward understanding my own cultural identity and those around me. I believe in and practice cultural competence by developing 1.) An understanding and awareness of my own cultural heritage, worldview, and biases, 2) An understanding and appreciation of other cultural groups' worldviews, values, and norms, and 3) The skills to effectively and respectfully interact cross-culturally.
I also defy some the demographics - I am in my mid-30s, and have been active in Sigma governance (starting on a local level) since my mid-20s. I feel that I am a voice for a younger generation of nurses who are trying to find their way in their careers, and who are trying to balance the needs of young children, family obligations, and full-time employment, yet desiring to maintain a connectedness to a professional organization and to contribute to something bigger.
My passion for Sigma is great, and I desire to participate in the process of governance of the organization if I am elected. I desire to help maintain all that is wonderful about the organization - its values, its rich history and heritage, while also being open to embracing new ideas and opportunities to grow the organization - meeting the needs of a diverse group of members whose careers span novice to expert to retiree, and meeting the needs of a diverse group of members from across the world. I would hope to provide input and guidance into making the organization a continually relevant one for all of its members - and a continually impactful organization that makes a difference in the health of the world's people.

Should you be elected to serve, what would you like to accomplish?
The challenges that lay ahead for STTI are in many ways dialectics - a dynamic tension between tradition and change. How do we maintain the rich history, heritage and values of the organization, while also being open to embracing new ideas and opportunities to grow the organization? How do we meet the needs of existing, devoted, and passionate members, while also opening our doors to expanding our membership base on a global scale? How do we expand our reach to impact the health of the world's peoples, while also meeting the needs of our members here in the US? How do we meet the needs of the current member demographics while also being open to meeting the needs of a diverse membership pool? STTI is challenged to meet the needs of a diverse group of members whose careers span novice to expert to retiree, and whose backgrounds represent global diversity. STTI is also challenged to maintain its relevance to nurses who have many options for professional membership. Ultimately, STTI's main goal is to be an organization that continually impacts the health of the world's people.
The governance committee plays a key role in the society's strategic vision in its function of overseeing the organization's bylaws - ensuring their compliance as well as making recommendations for change. Bylaws are the rules that instill power in various members of the leadership team, and are the rules that provide a gate-keeping function for organizational membership. Therefore, the governance committee's role is to balance conflicting opinions and views on if and how to adjust the organization's rules to either maintain the status quo or to change. I would bring to the committee a commitment to provide perspective, ideas, and energy. I would carefully consider and actively engage in the continuing dialogue regarding eligibility requirements (top 35%, professional nurse leader qualifications, etc.) in order to best reflect our current organizational and professional needs. I am interested in considering potential structural changes to Sigma's chapters. Are there other "hubs" around which to organize membership besides within schools of nursing? Could a hospital-based chapter be effective? Moreover, we need to understand how our bylaws limit our ability to expand as an international organization. In order to be truly global, we need to have provisions in our bylaws that accommodate all types of educational systems that are deemed equivalent.
Individuals initially join STTI for the honor. In this way, maintaining the exclusivity of membership (however that is defined) is important. However, once a member, there are other opportunities and benefits that ensure a member continues to renew membership - continuing education events, opportunities for networking, leadership development opportunities, etc. Given the current economic climate, members are more selective than ever about which professional organizational memberships they maintain. There must be both material (products, services) and nonmaterial (honor/prestige, sense of duty, philanthropy) benefits they can look to in order to convince them to continue their membership. We will need to understand what nurses from other countries already have available to them through other organizations, and what unique niche STTI can fill. We will want to be sensitive to the potentially negative cultural implications of an "honor society" (elitism, etc.) that we may not even be aware of given our Euro-centric worldview.
If elected, I would provide a thoughtful, forward-thinking, and diverse perspective to the committee with the goal of strengthening STTI’s position as the world's only honor society of nursing that is committed to improving the health of the world's people.