Gift honors nursing mentors and role models
Linda McCreary credits four faculty members at UIC with encouraging her to pursue a global career.
Linda McCreary’s work in nursing research and education took her all over the world, including Malawi, Rwanda, Eswatini, India and the Caribbean. But there was once a time when an international career was not on her radar.
“I lived internationally as a child because I was an ‘Army brat’ and my dad was stationed in early post-war Japan,” says McCreary, PhD ‘00, MSN ‘93, BSN ‘73, RN, FAAN, who retired from the UIC College of Nursing in 2021 as associate dean for global health. “I was always interested in international issues but I’d never, ever dreamed that my career would go in that direction.”
McCreary credits mentors and role models at UIC Nursing with giving her the courage to pursue a global career and for literally opening up a world of opportunities. Now she’s making a gift of $50,000 to the college, splitting the money equally into five existing funds, four of which are named in honor of those individuals. The fifth is the general UIC Nursing Scholarship Fund.
“I was lucky to be mentored by several really wonderful, important nurse leaders in the area of global health,” McCreary says. “I wanted to honor these leaders who have meant so much to me and given me the opportunity to experience what I did in my career.”
McCreary says she hopes her gift will help support students and faculty, particularly to be able to afford experiences studying abroad or working in global health.
“We’re often limited by what we imagine we could do,” she says. “I just want to widen the scope of what [students and faculty] can imagine.”
Beverly McElmurry
One of McCreary’s mentors was Beverly McElmurry, who helped her make her first foray into international research. Part of her gift will go to the Beverly J. McElmurry Endowed Scholarship Fund, which supports PhD students doing work in Primary Health Care. This was also McCreary’s area of study during her post-doctoral work.
McElmurry mentored McCreary during her post-doctoral work at UIC Nursing. She invited McCreary to conduct a program evaluation of an HIV prevention project in Eswatini (then-called Swaziland), which is in southern Africa.
“It led me into quite a few other international studies,” McCreary says. “When colleagues found out I had done this work, they wrote me into their grant applications to evaluate their study. It was Bev who got me into that.”
McElmurry was the first director of UIC Nursing’s WHO Collaborating Centre for International Nursing Development in Primary Health Care (PHC), a designation the college has maintained since 1986. She brought McCreary along as she attended WHO meetings and named her successor as director of the center.
“She had been preparing me all along, bringing me to meetings – international ones, or those focused on the Americas region,” McCreary says. “I just felt I could never repay her enough.”
Mi Ja Kim
Another of McCreary’s mentors was Mi Ja Kim, who was dean of the UIC College of Nursing from 1989 to 1995. Part of McCreary’s gift will go toward the Heung Soo and Mi Ja Kim Endowed Faculty Scholar, which supports scholarly research.
After Kim’s tenure as dean ended, she served as executive director of the college’s Global Health Leadership Office.
Kim spearheaded UIC Nursing’s involvement in the Human Resources for Health Program in Rwanda, which sought to rebuild the nation’s health care system after the Rwandan genocide. Kim spent her first year of “retirement” in Rwanda working on the project.
When McCreary went to Rwanda to supervise the project, she spent time with Kim and her husband, Heung Soo.
“They’ve done so much in global health,” McCreary says. “Mi Ja has also been a wonderful mentor to me and continues to be just amazing. She really helped guide my career path.”
Carrol Smith
McCreary also chose to honor Carrol Smith by contributing to the Carrol A.M. Smith Global Health Fund, which supports undergraduate students to study abroad.
Smith and McCreary were doctoral students together, and Smith went to Rwanda as a faculty member with the Human Resources for Health program.
“Carrol was inspiring to me,” McCreary says. “When she came back, she realized our school was lacking in opportunities for students to go and get an idea of health care and health systems education abroad, especially in little-resourced countries.”
Now, UIC Nursing offers several international learning experiences for undergraduate nursing students, including annual trips to Spain and St. Kitts and Nevis. McCreary says international experiences are important for students and faculty so they can learn from the successes and failures of other health systems and to help develop health care abroad.
“I really value giving students opportunities for this kind of experience,” McCreary says. “Like Carrol, I wanted to help make it possible for them if they hadn’t ever thought they could afford to travel abroad as a student.”
Virginia Ohlson
McCreary’s gift will also honor Virginia Ohlson, who devoted her life to providing professional nursing education and service around the world. She played a critical role in reestablishing education, licensure and practice standards for Japanese nursing after WWII. Coincidentally, when McCreary was living in Japan as a child, Ohlson was working there at the same time.
Part of McCreary’s gift will be put toward the Virginia Ohlson International Studies Endowment Fund, which supports international students studying at UIC and UIC students who want to study abroad.
“I know many, many of my doctoral students, and even master’s students, have benefited from the support of Virginia Ohlson’s grant,” McCreary says.