The Next Leader of the Pan American Nursing and Midwifery Collaborating Centers

Ada Markaki, an associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing, has been chosen to lead the Pan American Nursing and Midwifery Collaborating Centers. She will serve as chair-elect for two years and then become chair for two years.

The Pan American Nursing and Midwifery Collaborating Centers is a network of 15 World Health Organization Collaborating Centers within the Americas that support the roles of nurses and midwives in advancing universal health access and coverage, as well as promoting cooperation on a regional and global scale.

“I strongly believe in the collective power of networks,” said Dr. Markaki, who is also co-director of the School of Nursing’s Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Center for International Nursing, one of only eight designated centers in the United States. “The organization reflects the diversity of nurses and midwives and serves as a mechanism for developing knowledge, building capacity, strengthening health systems and influencing policy related to health priorities in our communities.”

Over her next four years as chair-elect and chair, Dr. Markaki says, her goal is to develop and expand PANMCC’s website as a repository of free teaching, training, and research materials that can benefit nurses throughout the Americas. She will also utilize network-wide resources to establish professional development and mentoring opportunities for nurses and midwives in low-resource settings.

Dr. Markaki is a graduate of Cleveland State University, where she majored in nursing. She holds a master’s degree in public health nursing and a master’s degree in medical anthropology from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Dr. Markaki earned a Ph.D. in health professions from the University of Crete.