Madeleine Leininger, PhD, LHD, DS, CTN, RN, FAAN, FRCNA, is the founder and leader of the academic field of transcultural nursing with focus on comparative human care, theory, and research. She is Professor Emeritus, College of Nursing, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan and Adjunct Professor, College of Nursing, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Leininger is an internationally known transcultural nursing lecturer, educator, author, theorist, administrator, researcher, and consultant in nursing and anthropology. She is a fellow and distinguished Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing and an Emeritus Member of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. She was one of the first graduate professional nurses prepared with a PhD in cultural anthropology. She initiated the Nurse Scientist and several transcultural nursing programs in the early 1970s and 1980s. She has done in-depth field studies of fifteen Western and non-Western cultures. Dr. Leininger initiated and was Editor of the Journal of Transcultural Nursing and started the Transcultural Nursing Society. She has been a Distinguished Professor and Lecturer in over 90 universities and has given over 1200 public addresses in the USA and overseas. She is author and editor of 28 books and has published over 220 articles. She published the first qualitative nursing research book (1985), an early psychiatric nursing book (1960), and the first Culture Care Diversity and Universality Theory book. Presently, Dr. Leininger resides in Omaha, Nebraska and is active as a worldwide transcultural nursing consultant, educator, lecturer, and writer.
Marilyn R. McFarland, PhD, MSN, CTN, RN, is an adjunct faculty member at the Crystal M. Lange College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Saginaw Valley State University, at University Center, Michigan, where she is currently serving as the coordinator of a special project (OPEN, “Opportunities for Professional Education in Nursing”) to recruit, engage, and retain culturally diverse students in nursing. She received her PhD in nursing with a focus on transcultural nursing under Dr. Madeleine Leininger at Wayne State University in Detroit in 1995. Dr. McFarland, a Certified Transcultural Nurse, has focused her professional work on the care and study of elders from diverse cultures in the United States and has presented her research findings about the culture care of elders worldwide. She is a former editor of the Journal of Transcultural Nursing and is an active member of the Transcultural Nursing Society, to which she has made many signifi-cant contributions. Dr. McFarland has also been a mentor to many students in the United States and abroad, making transcultural nursing meaningful and important in people care. She has received many prestigious awards, including the Leininger Award presented by the Transcultural Nursing Society. She is an outstanding transcultural nursing researcher and educator who has helped to make transcultural nursing an exciting and relevant discipline.
