Wendy Ray
- Position: Assistant Professor of Clinical Practice
- Department: School of Nursing
- Office Location: Online
- wray@uwf.edu
- Campus: 850.473.7756
Biography
Wendy Lovelace Ray, RN, PhD, MAJ, Assistant Professor, teaches nursing students in the RN-BSN Program. She has taught Transition to Professional Nursing, Gerontology, and Health Education in the Community.
Dr. Ray is a Major in the USAF serving as a flight nurse reservist with the 36 Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, Keesler AFB, Mississippi. She has deployed in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel and has been awarded the National Defense Service Medal, United States Commendation Medal, Aerial Achievement Medal, Meritorious Service Medal First Leaf Clover and the Meritorious Service Medal, Second Leaf Clover.
Her research is focused specifically on women's research. For her doctoral dissertation, she evaluated the impact of a theoretically-driven hope intervention program on hope and health-related quality of life (HRWOL), in rural Southern women with heart failure, compared to a control group. A repeated-measures within-subjects designed was used to compare hope and HRQOL. Results of the 6-week program revealed a statistically significant difference was found in hope and HRQOL scores between groups.
An academic interest of hers is mentoring first-generation undergraduate nursing students and students from underrepresented populations. In collaboration with Dr. Brandy Strahan, a nursing mentorship pilot program has been implemented among undergraduate RN-BSN students and graduate MSN nurse educator students. This pilot project will provide an opportunity for learning through mentoring.
She received a bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Southern Mississippi, a master's degree in nursing, with a specialization in nursing education, from William Carey University, and a doctorate of philosophy in nursing from the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
