Mary Holt Ashley, Ph.D., RN, CNAA, BC
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Dr. Ashley who began her nursing career as Licensed Vocational nurse recently retired from the Harris County Hospital District a multi health care system, after 36 years with 30 of these years in administration in roles such as nurse manger, supervisor, assistant director, director, chief nursing officer and then chief nurse executive. Currently she and is writing a book on leadership based on theory of boxing.
She earned a doctorate in nursing Administration from Texas Woman’s University. She is actively involved in professional, community and church organizations. Serving in leadership roles such as President, Vice President or Officer in many major organizations such as Texas Nurses Association, American Nursing Association and Eta Delta Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau at the local, state, and national levels has been a continuous process. She is a former President of the Houston Organization of Nurse Executives and has served as the vice president of the North Forest Independent School District Board of Trustees. She is currently a member of Zeta Chi Chapter of Chi Eta Phi Nursing Sorority and on the board of the Black Nurses Association and Texas nursing association, and is a reviewer for the TNA Nurse Friendly designation.
She has received many rewards for leadership and exemplary performance throughout her career such as Health Care Executive of the year in 1999, Nurse of the Year, Excellence in Writing Award, one of the ten Women on the Move in 1992, recognized for professional achievements by Women of Achievement and other health care organizations. One of her projects called, “Creating An Organization That Inspires the Soul”, a concept to make spiritual values a part of the work culture received the prestigious Organization-Wide Innovative Award from American Organization of Nurse Executives in Nashville, Tennessee in March 2000. She was honored as an outstanding alumnus of Alvin Junior College in 1999 and Texas Woman’s University in 2000. In 2006 she received Best Nurse Leader of the year sponsored by Advance Nursing and the Super Achiever Minority award given by the YMCAs of America. In 2007 she receive the president’s award from Texas Nursing Association and just received the “woman of the Year award on May 5, 2007 from the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Dr. Ashley has published articles in Journal of Nursing Administration, Nursing Management, Clinical Issues AACN, Journal of Emergency Nursing and JOCEPS. She has conducted nursing research studies on employee satisfaction, motivational factors of nurse managers, and the effect of empathy training on nurses’ empathetic levels and the Quality of life of AIDS patients.
In addition to these activities she is actively involved in church work. Currently she is a Deacon and Trustee, Chairman of the Personnel & Scholarship committees, and vice president of the church council. Frequently she speaks at church programs, retreats and professional workshops. Dr. Ashley, an avid scrabble player, is married and has one son.
John F. Alderete, Ph.D
John F. Alderete, Ph.D. is Professor of Microbiology at the University of Texas
Health Science Center at San Antonio. He was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1950.
He received two B.S. degrees (mathematics and biology) as an undergraduate student
at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology at Socorro. His first and second
publications were from work as an undergraduate with Dr. Gilbert Sanchez at Tech
and as a student intern with Dr. Tom H. Wilson at the Department of Physiology at
Harvard Medical School, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in microbiology in 1978
from the U. Kansas-Lawrence. He did postdoctoral work at UNC-Chapel Hill prior to
a faculty position at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio in 1981. He has
been director of two training grants from NIAID/NIH. He has over 117 publications
in peer-review journals and is the author of 54 book chapters and invited OP-ED
editorials.
Dr. Alderete has served on National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine panels
and as a reviewer of IOM panel reports. He serves on three editorial boards and
has been an ad hoc reviewer of 47 scientific journals. He is asked to speak on issues
involving minorities, higher education, and the scientific workforce by government
agencies. These include the President's National Science Board, the NIH, the Federal
FDA, the White House Office for Science and Technology Policy, and White House “One
Nation” on race and health disparities. He was asked to moderate the session in
October 1999, a Public Policy Forum on the “Digital Divide” as part of the President’s
Information Technology Advisory Committee and The Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars. In April 2000, he moderated a session at the Office of Research on
Minority Health/NIH conference on health disparities in Washington, DC.
He has received many honors and awards, most notably the Premio Encuentro Award
for Science and Technology in 1992, the single highest honor given to an Hispanic
in America. He was elected into the honorific societies Sigma χi and as a Fellow
of the American Academy of Microbiology by the American Society of Microbiology
(ASM), and in the fall of 2001 was honored at the National Atomic Museum in New
Mexico. Also in 2003, the May issue of Hispanic Engineer & Information Technology
magazine honored Dr. Alderete for his efforts to bridge the “Digital Divide” for
minorities, among other outreach activities. Hispanic Magazine selected him as one
of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America.
He conducted for over a ten-year period a Saturday Morning Science Camp for minority
students, parents and teachers, a science activity that was adopted by a community-based
organization. He has mentored 38 underrepresented minorities from undergraduate
institutions and high schools as summer interns in his laboratory. He has given
presentations throughout K-12 schools in the San Antonio and South Texas area. Dr.
Alderete is the past-president of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and
Native Americans in the Sciences (SACNAS), and SACNAS has honored him with the 2003
Distinguished Scientist Award presented at the annual conference. On May 2004 the
ASM honored Dr. Alderete with the William A. Hinton Research Training Award for
his efforts at bringing minorities into the sciences.
His research on the number one, non-viral sexually transmitted agent, Trichomonas
vaginalis, has been presented as abstracts published in 145 proceedings of national
and international scientific meetings, where he has also participated in, chaired,
and organized scientific symposia. He has given over 396 presentations at colleges,
universities and conferences across the country and throughout the world, most of
which were seminars on his research work. His research has resulted in 6 patents
and patents pending. He has an exclusive license agreement between the Board of
Regents of UT and Xenotope Diagnostics, Inc. He has been a member of study sections
and panels for NIH institutes, the NSF, USDA and other government agencies. He was
a member of the National Advisory Research Council for the National Institute of
Dental and Craniofacial Research/NIH. More recently, he was the inventor for the
first-ever diagnostic for trichomonosis disease and was co-founder of a biotechnology
company, Xenotope Diagnostics, Inc. The company is FDA-approved for two products
for the diagnosis of Trichomonas STD vaginitis. Finally, Dr. Alderete was recently
accepted into the National Academy of Sciences of Mexico.
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