Nancy Rollins Gantz Editor

Dr. Nancy Rollins Gantz maintains a passion and endless energy for being a consistent mentor, motivator for leadership team growth and point-of-care staff coupled with emphasis on quality outcome services and patient safety values. Her personal mission is to consistently add significance and positive contribution to the nursing profession, global healthcare, diversity and the community. We are all one people that must be provided the opportunity to not just survive but thrive in this world.

During an extended international journey, she successfully coached and mentored staff, managers, and leaders to a level of effective and positive collaboration, communication, patient care services through a professional practice model in an integrated, multicultural work environment with over 2000 staff from 40 to 60 different countries and cultures. This led to Dr. Gantz’s development of the CAPPS™ International model, Cultural Appreciation through Professional Practice and Synergy.

Dr. Gantz has published on numerous topics; extensively presented and consulted to over 45 countries; held adjunct professor at assorted institutions; and participation in international and national editorial boards. Dr. Gantz is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society, former Middle Manager Board Member of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) (now AONL) and has held numerous national and regional positions with the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN).  Most recently, Dr. Gantz was a member of the AONL Innovation Approaches to Recruiting and Retaining Early Careers in Nurse Manager’s role. Recently, Dr. Gantz was elected Secretary for the Board of Directors Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and is President of Beta Psi Chapter of Sigma, Portland, Oregon, USA.

She is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Emerging Leaders in America, Who’s Who in American Nursing as well as numerous others. She has received several other honors and awards including the American Organization of Nurse Leaders PRISM Award for leadership in cultural diversity, the Lloydena Grimes Award for Nursing Excellence from Lindfield-Good Samaritan School of Nursing and, most recently, International Leaders in Achievement. Dr. Gantz is a Wharton Fellow through the completion of the Johnson & Johnson Wharton Program for Nurse Executives, The Wharton Business School, and University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. with over 40 years of nursing leadership. She is the editor and author of the book “101 Global Leadership Lessons for Nurses: Shared Legacies from Leaders and their Mentors” published by Sigma Theta Tau International.    

Dr. Thóra B. Hafsteinsdóttir, PhD, RN, is senior researcher at the Department of Nursing Science, Julius Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, and Department of Health care for people with chronic illness at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, the Netherlands. Dr. Hafsteinsdóttir, who was born in Iceland, moved to the Netherlands 1990 where she received her PhD from the University of Utrecht in 2003. Her research areas are stroke rehabilitation nursing and leadership nurses and the development of leadership programs with special focus on leadership and professional development of postdoctoral nurses. She teaches and supervises master’s and PhD students and secured funding for various research and development programs among other for the Dutch national Leadership Mentoring in Nursing Research Program for postdoctoral nurses, which she coordinates and has been followed by many postdoctoral nurses in the Netherlands. She chaired the European funding for research, development and execution of the Nursing Leadership and Mentoring Online Educational Program for Doctoral Nursing Students and Postdoctoral Nurses in Europe, the Nurse-Lead project, - a collaboration between six European countries: Iceland, Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, and Portugal and followed by 50 fellows, doctoral nursing students and postdoctoral nurses. Further she is a work package leader in an international, EU funded project: “Accelerating Master and PhD nursing education in Kazakhstan”, The AccelEd, - a European collaboration between universities in Kazakhstan and Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands.

Dr. Hafsteinsdóttir is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society and served as a director of the international board of Sigma for the years (2014-2019). Currently she serves currently on the international board of Sigma Foundation for Nursing of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society. Earlier Dr. Hafsteinsdóttir served as the president of the Rho Chi Chapter at Large, Utrecht, the Netherlands and served as the first Regional Coordinator for the Europe Region for Sigma. Dr. Hafsteinsdóttir is a member of the European Academy of Nursing Science (EANS), a member of Academia Europeae and Fellow ad Eundem of the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery of Royal College of Surgeons Ireland.

Dr. Hafsteinsdóttir is the author and editor of the book: Leadership in Nursing: Experiences from the European Nordic Countries was published by Springer. Dr. Hafsteinsdóttir has over 100 international publications and has given over 100 lectures at international conferences.