Bio for Dr


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Editorial 
 

EDITORIAL BOARD CHANGES 
 

Jeri Dunkin PhD, RN 
Editor 

 
 

There have been some changes in the Editorial Board since the last issue.  Dr. 
Melondie Carter, from The University of Alabama, has completed her term on the Board 
as has Ms. Kathy Crooks from Medicine Hat College in Alberta, Canada.  We have added 
three new Board Members.  

Dr. Linda L. Dunn, is currently a tenured, full professor at the University of 
Alabama and has been a faculty member within the Capstone College of Nursing for 27 
years.  Dr. Dunn received her BSN from the University of Alabama School of Nursing in 
1967, her MSN from the Mississippi University for Women (Family Nurse Practitioner) 
in 1983, and her DSN from the University of Alabama in Birmingham in 1989.  Her 
research trajectory has focused mostly on spiritual health.  In 1992, Dr. Dunn was a 
collaborator (20%) on a 5 year NIH grant ($350,000) entitled A prospective study of 
psychosocial job strain and birth outcomes which resulted in two publications, both of 
which included findings related to spirituality.  She has also received funding for other 
studies that included the investigation of spirituality, such as the study of faith 
communities and breast/cervical cancer prevention in a rural Alabama county and the 
investigation of nurses on a maternal-infant unit in a hospital in the southeastern United 
States.  Two other spirituality studies included ante-partal women on bed rest and the 
statewide omnibus poll of adults (Alabama).  Her dissertation was a qualitative study of 
the lived experience of battered women. 

Dr. Collins is a Clinical Associate Professor of Nursing with a clinical focus in 
critical care, pharmacology, intra-operative nursing and adult health. She received her AS 
and BSN from Samford University in 1976 and 1977, and earned her MSN from Medical 
College of Georgia in 1978. She completed her DSN from the University of Alabama in 
Birmingham in 1991. Dr. Collins has a 31-year history of clinical nursing experience. She 
has published in the areas of cardiovascular pharmacology and patho-physiology. She 
also speaks locally, regionally, and nationally on topics of clinical relevance to post-
anesthesia care, and gastrointestinal physiology. She has eleven years experience as a 
Surgical Clinical Nurse Specialist. In this role she assisted patients and staff to improve 
patient outcomes through education and advanced practice nursing interventions.  
Dr. Graves received her B.S in Nursing from The Capstone College of Nursing at The 
University of Alabama in 1979. She earned her M.S. degree in Nursing from the 
University of Alabama in Birmingham in 1983 and her PhD in Clinical Health Science at 
the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi in 2007. She has 
worked and taught extensively in critical care and cardiovascular nursing since 1981. Dr. 
Graves’ areas of expertise and clinical research interests include: Primary and secondary 
prevention of CVD;  Health disparities and geographical access; Geographical 
Information Systems and mapping of health issues; Human Patient Simulation use in 
teaching cardiovascular nursing; Health promotion and disease prevention; and Evidence-
Based Practice. 

Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, vol. 8, no. 1, Spring 2008 
 

http://www.rno.org/journal/index.php/online-journal/about/editorialTeam


 

Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, vol. 8, no. 1, Spring 2008 
 

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I am excited about the added diversity these new members bring to the Board.  I 
hope you will find their columns interesting and useful.  If you are interested in being 
considered for a position on the Editorial Board please contact me at 
jdunkin@bama.ua.edu.   
 

mailto:jdunkin@bama.ua.edu