Mary F. Terhaar

Mary F. Terhaar, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN, is Associate Dean for Graduate Programs at the Fitzpatrick College of Nursing at Villanova University. She is a respected leader in translation, education, and team collaboration. Across 40 years of leadership spanning diverse systems, roles, and clinical services; she has framed problems as challenges, built high-functioning teams with diverse talents, and led development and execution of replicable solutions. Dr. Terhaar has authored or co-authored more...See more

Mary F. Terhaar, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN, is Associate Dean for Graduate Programs at the Fitzpatrick College of Nursing at Villanova University. She is a respected leader in translation, education, and team collaboration. Across 40 years of leadership spanning diverse systems, roles, and clinical services; she has framed problems as challenges, built high-functioning teams with diverse talents, and led development and execution of replicable solutions. Dr. Terhaar has authored or co-authored more than 70 manuscripts and chapters, as well as two broadly adopted texts on translation, evaluation, and DNP education. She is sought as a consultant on curriculum design and continuous improvement in nursing education and provides support to programs working to deliver high impact, rigorous education. She is an active site visitor and team leader for the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Dr. Terhaar has advanced DNP education by creating processes, curricula, and resources which guide faculty and students across the nation and in five countries to produce outcomes. The pioneering work of teams she has led provides guidance for IRB submission, scholarly writing, data management, translation, multiple significant practice challenges, and now entry and success in doctoral education for nurses on the rise. All are increasingly included in curricula which prepare graduates to meet the Quadruple Aim. Dr. Terhaar has led a series of programs to increase diversity in the workforce by increasing diversity in graduate and undergraduate education. Most recently, she developed and lead an innovative program to increase diversity and belonging among undergraduate nursing students in collaboration with the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, and North Philadelphia high schools. Dr. Terhaar is co-founder of an innovative program that helps prospective students remove barriers to entering doctoral study, which has increased successful applications across diverse groups of nurses. She also developed a post-doctoral program for DNPs which increased dissemination, socialization, collaboration, and impact. She has helped to increase the caliber and rigor of scholarship produced by DNPs, appropriate submissions to IRBs, reliability of data and means testing, successful publications, and outcomes from DNP projects. See less