Carol Jorgensen Huston, RN, MSN, DPA, FAAN, began her term as president of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International by calling on members of the world’s largest nursing honor society to make the organization “intentionally global.”
“Our efforts to become a truly global organization have been incremental, and the time has come to be much more bold and intentional in our approach,” Huston said in her Presidential Call to Action. “The honor society must actively move beyond being a U.S. organization with international members.”
The action plan to achieve this goal, outlined in the honor society’s Vision 2020 plan, calls for a substantial increase in membership outside the United States by 2020.
“Our goal is to see a 20 percent increase in the number of active members living outside the United States in the 2007-09 biennium alone,” Huston said. “But it’s not just numbers that determine whether an organization is truly global. It’s having a global mind-set so all priorities and actions are viewed in a global context.”
Huston has been a member of the honor society for more than 30 years and serves as its 27th president. She has been a professor at California State University, Chico (CSUC) School of Nursing since 1982, teaching leadership, management, professional issues and health systems to undergraduate and graduate students. She also taught in the Master of Sciences in Nursing/Family Nurse Practitioner program and MSN-Entry program at Western University of Health Science in Pomona, Calif.
Huston co-developed the Marquis-Huston Model for Teaching Critical Thinking, recognized internationally by nurse scholars. She is co-author or author of four books, including Professional Issues in Nursing: Challenges and Opportunities and Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing: Theory and Application, (both books published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins). In addition, Huston has published more than 70 articles in leading professional journals and serves on the editorial board of the honor society’s Journal of Nursing Scholarship.
In addition to global expansion, Huston’s additional goals for the honor society during her two-year presidency include:
- Continue to build knowledge resources.
- Further develop leadership skills of members.
- Greater emphasis on providing community service.
Huston and other members of the board of directors were inducted at the honor society’s biennial convention in Baltimore in November 2007. Board members for the 2007-2009 biennium include:
- President-Elect: Karen Helen Morin, RN, DSN, professor, director of graduate programs, University of Milwaukee
- Vice President: Gwen Sherwood, RN, Ph.D., FAAN, professor and associate dean for academic affairs, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing
- Secretary: Beverly Reigle, Ph.D., RN, assistant professor, University of Cincinnati College of Nursing
- Treasurer: Richard Ricciardi, Ph.D., NP, FAANP, chief, Nursing Research Service, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC
- Director: Anna Alt-White, RN, Ph.D., program director for research, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Headquarters Office of Nursing Services
- Director: Karen Grigsby, RN, Ph.D., associate professor, University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing
- Director: Hester Klopper, Ph.D., MBA, RN, RM, RPN, RNM, RCN, RNE, professor and director, North-West University, South Africa
- Director: Karen Pehrson, MS, APRN, BC, psychiatric clinical nurse specialist, Southcoast Hospitals Group; visiting lecturer, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth College of Nursing
- Director: Beth Baldwin Tigges, RN, Ph.D., CPNP, BC, interim senior associate dean for research and clinical scholarship, associate professor, University of New Mexico College of Nursing
- Regional Chapters Coordinating Committee Chair: Jane Allen, RN-BC, MS, clinical education specialist, Texas Health Resources
- Chief Executive Officer: Patricia E. Thompson, RN, EdD, FAAN
For more information about the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International, visit their Web site.