Biography

Dr. Phyllis B. Kritek, RN, PhD, FAAN, after over thirty years as a nurse educator, is now sole proprietor of her own company, "courage" and provides consultation, training, and mediation services, focusing on conflict transformation. While her primary interest is in alternative dispute resolution, she also provides problem solving, group facilitation, organizational analysis, and related services. She held the Florence Thelma Hall Distinguished Professorship in Nursing and served as founding director of the doctoral program at the University of Texas School of Nursing at Galveston. A graduate of the University of Illinois, she held distinguished positions at other universities including Dean of Nursing at Marquette University, and founding director of the Doctoral Program in Nursing and the Director of the Center for Nursing Research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A nationally and internationally known nurse scholar, Dr. Kritek has traveled extensively as a consultant to nurses in several countries. She is sought as a speaker and consultant not only on conflict resolution and organizational development, but also gender and communication, leadership development, health care services for underserved population, healing processes and nursing philosophy. As a clinician, she specialized in counseling women experiencing depression. Dr. Kritek has served on the editorial board of several nursing journals. She was the Editor of Nursing Forum from 1989-1992. She is the author of Negotiating at an Uneven Table: Developing Moral Courage in Resolving Our Conflicts, published in 1994 by Jossey-Bass Publishers, with a second edition published in 2001. She also publishes extensively in peer-reviewed journals and books. She is the editor of and a contributor to the book, Reflections on Healing: A Central Nursing Construct (NLN Press, 1996). She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN), and a member of several professional organizations, where she has served in a variety of professional leadership roles. These include Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Community Health Accreditation Program and a Board Member of NLN and NANDA. She just completed a term as President of the Board of Trustees of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS), having also held offices as Vice President and Treasurer. She has served as Co-Chair of the Health Sector of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR), and Coordinator of the Health Sector Conference Program. She is a past recipient of a Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship where she initiated her involvement in conflict resolution.