Mary Starke Harper Distinguished Lectureship

The 2008 Recipient of the Mary Starke Harper Distinguished Lectureship Award is Gloria Smith, PhD, RN, FAAN

Gloria Smith, PhD, RN, FAAN

Dr. Gloria Smith is a distinguished leader with exceptional qualities who started out her career in nursing as a public health nurse in Detroit after completing her BSN at Wayne State University. She received her MS from the University of Michigan, and an MS and PhD in Anthropology. She was Dean at the University of Oklahoma and from there became the first woman to head the State of Michigan’s Department of Public Health. In 1988 Dr. Smith became the Dean of Wayne State University. In 1991 she began her work and continued her strong career at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek Michigan. At the Foundation she was the Vice President for Programs in Health. She retired in 2001.

Gloria Smith is known for her exemplary leadership in both private and public domains in this country and abroad.  The scope of her influence in nursing, health care, and health policy arenas transcends local, state, and national boundaries to encompass several foreign countries. Through her professional initiatives in both private and public sectors, Dr. Smith has forged a broad perspective on the meaning, significance, and essential characteristics of care, education, and research in nursing and health service systems. Her work over a lifetime has demonstrated a commitment to improving the health and quality of life of people in underserved communities. Someone once described Gloria Smith as a person who over a lifetime stirred up controversy—stemming from her devotion to enabling others to grow, advance, and overcome disadvantages born of discrimination based on race, gender, occupational status, and socioeconomic class.  She is also known for the power of her penetrating assessments and insights in complex situations.

Dr. Gloria Smith has been a visionary across her career. She has had a profound impact through her vision and work on the Community Voices project; findings from this project informed new health care coverage options for uninsured and increased access to care. She also left her mark at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, the only Historically Black College and University in Texas with a SON. In 1997 less than 8 percent of NPs in Texas were African American or Hispanic, while over one-third of the Texas residents belonged to these minority groups. Gloria worked with the SON to develop an APN program; in addition she linked the SON with Kellogg funding to prepare faculty for advanced practice roles. Dr. Smith was a founding member of the Black Nurses Association.

Most recently at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation she was the brains and soul behind the Community Partnerships Initiatives in Health professions education.  Those who worked on this project said her futuristic thinking advanced this funding to develop real world interdisciplinary training models for medicine and nursing, moving health professions education away from its silos.  These initiatives funded community-based Interdisciplinary Health Professions Education nationally with a focus on increasing access to cost-effective, culturally competent health care provided by Nurse Practitioners and NP-run Faculty Practices serving medically underserved communities in rural communities. In addition, under her leadership the Foundation funded NP data base efforts that continue to provide important policy-making decisions for the development of the graduate NP workforce. 

Dr. Gloria Smith has shaken up many neighborhoods across her career; she has shared her great gifts with so many around the world and created a legacy of lasting significance in the lives of people in communities, the healing professions—especially nursing and advanced practice nursing, and human services. She continues her commitment to community in her retirement.