DEVA-MARIE BECK, PhD, RN, DTM, HSGAHN
International Co-Director
Dr. Deva-Marie Beck is a Canadian / American nurse, author, educator, global networker, and award-winning Florence Nightingale scholar who serves as a volunteer International Co-Director of the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH). Her primary goal is to engage and empower nurses, midwives and concerned citizens to be public advocates for the most pressing health and development needs of our time — at grassroots-to-global levels.
She has recently been recognized as an Honorary Scholar (HSGAHN) of the Global Academy of Holistic Nursing for her leadership to promote and sustain global health care transformation and advocacy to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Currently developing an updated approach to NIGH’s Four Mandates, she is collaborating with a growing global community to; 1) Engage nursing's voice out across the global public |
space — 2) Encourage self-care — 3) Celebrate diversity and common ground & 4) Promote global health and well-being.
Thus, she is engaging leading Student Nurses and Nurses to collaborate with the United Nations Institute for Training & Research (UNITAR) and UNITAR's CIFAL York Centre at York University in Toronto with the Student Nurses Voices Speaker Series (2024-2025) and the Nurses Voices Speaker Series (2023-3024). She is also involved in a new project with the Canadian African Maternal Newborn Health Association (CAMNHA) to engage midwives in advocacy to improve health outcomes for mothers and their infants in low-resourced and marginalized regions of Africa and Canada.
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To prepare for these projects, Dr. Beck has been a 13-year member of Toastmasters International (TI). Through this participation, she has achieved her ‘Distinguished Toast Master’ (DTM)—TI’s highest-level award by accomplishing 40 required public presentations and by serving—as importantly in an equal amount of time — through related leadership activities to educate and empower the personal and professional growth of her peers. She now aims to use this ‘credential’ to encourage and engage nurses to share their stories and voices at community, national and global levels.
To prepare for the 2025 International Year of the Nurse, Dr. Beck has collaborated with NIGH's growing community of artistic collaborators to commemorate and appreciate nurses through three new Music Videos — THE HEALERS — See the Person Who is A Nurse & The Flame of Florence Nightingale's Legacy: Our Nightingale Prayer.
Authoring & Co-Authoring a number of peer-reviewed journal articles, textbook chapters and the award-winning Florence Nightingale Today: Healing, Leadership, Global Action, Dr. Beck's two recent international peer-reviewed journal articles further articulate NIGH's purposes and mandates:
• Remembering Nightingale in Her Turbulent Times: Introducing the Theory of Integral Nursing in Our Turbulent Times (2024) published by the International Nursing Review peer-reviewed journal of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) — co-authored with Dr. Barbara M. Dossey, NIGH's International Co-Director.
• Creating the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health: Theoretical Reflections to Follow in Florence Nightingale's Footsteps (2021) published via Open Access in English, Portuguese and Spanish for the trilingual open-source nursing journal Revista Latino-Americana Emfermagen.
During the 2020 WHO Year of the Nurse & Midwife, Dr. Beck contributed with three video productions — In Florence Nightingale's Own Words — Introducing the Nightingale Declaration and La declaration Nightingale pour un monde en santé — both of these as the 2020 renewal of NIGH's Nightingale Declaration for A Healthy World, now in fifteen language versions.
Across more than two decades, Dr. Beck has led NIGH’s work through UN briefings, group discussions, website updates — feature articles, photojournalism, and multi-media — campaigns, journal articles, book chapters, books, and keynote presentations — worldwide — and to achieve NIGH’s ‘Special Consultative Status’, granted by the United Nations Economic & Social Council (UN ECOSOC) in 2018.
She has also developed a number of additional music videos, including, with the World Health Organization, Nurses & Midwives: Now More Than Ever (in eight language versions) and At The Heart of It All: Nurses & Midwives for Universal Health Coverage. As well, she created NIGH's Daring to Tell Our Stories to the World and collaborated to produce Daring, Caring & Sharing to Save Mothers' Lives.
In collaboration with the Congress of NGO's in Consultative Status with the UN (CoNGO), Dr. Beck has contributed two United Nations Civil Society Development Forum panel presentations to prepare for UN ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Reviews for Global Health in Geneva (2009) and for Gender Equality, Empowerment of Women and Development Cooperation in New York City (2010).
Dr. Beck's multi-disciplinary education in arts and science both shaped her commitment to become a nurse specializing in clinical critical care and women's health (1976 - 2002) and global health and global civil society (1992 - present). She holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Nursing and International Development from the Union Institute (2002) for her groundbreaking research to articulate Florence Nightingale’s relevance to today’s international health, development, education, and media.
In 2019, Dr. Beck returned to Canada's National Capital Region—after residing in the Manitoba prairie towns of Neepawa and Kelwood for seven years. While in Manitoba, she expanded her understanding of grassroots views and local-to-global outreach through membership in Rotary International and International Inner Wheel, where she also served as District Chair.
To prepare for the 2025 International Year of the Nurse, Dr. Beck has collaborated with NIGH's growing community of artistic collaborators to commemorate and appreciate nurses through three new Music Videos — THE HEALERS — See the Person Who is A Nurse & The Flame of Florence Nightingale's Legacy: Our Nightingale Prayer.
Authoring & Co-Authoring a number of peer-reviewed journal articles, textbook chapters and the award-winning Florence Nightingale Today: Healing, Leadership, Global Action, Dr. Beck's two recent international peer-reviewed journal articles further articulate NIGH's purposes and mandates:
• Remembering Nightingale in Her Turbulent Times: Introducing the Theory of Integral Nursing in Our Turbulent Times (2024) published by the International Nursing Review peer-reviewed journal of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) — co-authored with Dr. Barbara M. Dossey, NIGH's International Co-Director.
• Creating the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health: Theoretical Reflections to Follow in Florence Nightingale's Footsteps (2021) published via Open Access in English, Portuguese and Spanish for the trilingual open-source nursing journal Revista Latino-Americana Emfermagen.
During the 2020 WHO Year of the Nurse & Midwife, Dr. Beck contributed with three video productions — In Florence Nightingale's Own Words — Introducing the Nightingale Declaration and La declaration Nightingale pour un monde en santé — both of these as the 2020 renewal of NIGH's Nightingale Declaration for A Healthy World, now in fifteen language versions.
Across more than two decades, Dr. Beck has led NIGH’s work through UN briefings, group discussions, website updates — feature articles, photojournalism, and multi-media — campaigns, journal articles, book chapters, books, and keynote presentations — worldwide — and to achieve NIGH’s ‘Special Consultative Status’, granted by the United Nations Economic & Social Council (UN ECOSOC) in 2018.
She has also developed a number of additional music videos, including, with the World Health Organization, Nurses & Midwives: Now More Than Ever (in eight language versions) and At The Heart of It All: Nurses & Midwives for Universal Health Coverage. As well, she created NIGH's Daring to Tell Our Stories to the World and collaborated to produce Daring, Caring & Sharing to Save Mothers' Lives.
In collaboration with the Congress of NGO's in Consultative Status with the UN (CoNGO), Dr. Beck has contributed two United Nations Civil Society Development Forum panel presentations to prepare for UN ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Reviews for Global Health in Geneva (2009) and for Gender Equality, Empowerment of Women and Development Cooperation in New York City (2010).
Dr. Beck's multi-disciplinary education in arts and science both shaped her commitment to become a nurse specializing in clinical critical care and women's health (1976 - 2002) and global health and global civil society (1992 - present). She holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Nursing and International Development from the Union Institute (2002) for her groundbreaking research to articulate Florence Nightingale’s relevance to today’s international health, development, education, and media.
In 2019, Dr. Beck returned to Canada's National Capital Region—after residing in the Manitoba prairie towns of Neepawa and Kelwood for seven years. While in Manitoba, she expanded her understanding of grassroots views and local-to-global outreach through membership in Rotary International and International Inner Wheel, where she also served as District Chair.
Selected Publications
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• Beck, D.M. & Dossey, B.M. (2024). Remembering Nightingale in Her Turbulent Times: Introducing the Theory of Integral Nursing in Our Turbulent Times. International Nursing Review DOI: 10.1111/inr.13064
• Beck, D. M. (2021). Creating the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health: Theoretical reflections to follow in Florence
Nightingale's footsteps.Revista Americana-Latino de Emfermagem (in press in English, Portuguese and Spanish).
• Beck, D. M., Dossey, B. M. & Rosa, W. E. (2019). Global Holistic Nursing: Our 'North Star' Now and for Generations to Come.
In Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice (8th Edition) (pp. 621-634.
•. Beck, D. M., Dossey, B. M., & Rushton, C. H. (2019). Global Activism, Advocacy, and Transformation: Florence Nightingale’s
Legacy for the Twenty-first Century. In Kreitzer, M. J., & Koithan, M. (Eds). Integrative Nursing Second Edition. (pp. 678-688). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Beck, D. M. (2021). Creating the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health: Theoretical reflections to follow in Florence
Nightingale's footsteps.Revista Americana-Latino de Emfermagem (in press in English, Portuguese and Spanish).
• Beck, D. M., Dossey, B. M. & Rosa, W. E. (2019). Global Holistic Nursing: Our 'North Star' Now and for Generations to Come.
In Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice (8th Edition) (pp. 621-634.
•. Beck, D. M., Dossey, B. M., & Rushton, C. H. (2019). Global Activism, Advocacy, and Transformation: Florence Nightingale’s
Legacy for the Twenty-first Century. In Kreitzer, M. J., & Koithan, M. (Eds). Integrative Nursing Second Edition. (pp. 678-688). New York: Oxford University Press.
- Dossey, B. M. & Beck, D. M. (2019). In Florence Nightingale’s Footsteps: Global Citizens as Environmental and Civil Society Activists: The UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Paradigm Explorer, 31 (3,): 11-15.
- Beck, D. M. & Dossey, B. M. (2019). In Nightingale's Footsteps—Individual to Global: From Nurse Coaches to Environmental and Civil Society Activists. Creative Nursing: A Journal of Values, Issues, Experience and Collaboration, Volume, 25 (3): 1-6.
- Dossey, B. M., Rosa, W. E. & Beck, D. M. (2019). Nursing and The Sustainable Development Goals: From Nightingale to Now. American Journal of Nursing, 119(5): 40-45.
- Beck, D. M., Dossey, B. M., & Rosa, W. E. (2018). Florence Nightingale and The 17 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Beginnings, 18 (2): 18-23.
- Beck, D. M. (2017). A Brief History of The United Nations and Nursing: A Healthy World Is Our Common Future. In Rosa, W. (Ed). A New Era in Global Health and The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (pp. 57-83). New York: Springer Publishing Company.
- Dossey, B. M. , Beck, D. M., Oerther, S., & Manjrekar, P. (2017). Florence Nightingale’s Legacy: Rationale for An Integral Worldview in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. In Rosa, W. (Ed). A New Era in Global Health and The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (pp. 149-178). New York: Springer Publishing Company.
- Beck, D. M. (2016). Artistic and Scientific: Broadening the Scope of Our 21st Century Health Advocacy. In Rosa, W. (Ed). Nurses As Leaders: Evolutionary Visions of Leadership (pp. 247-263) New York: Springer Publishing Company.
- Beck, D. M., (2013). Empowering Women and Girls — Empowering Nurses: A Narrative to Discover Florence Nightingale’s Global Citizenship Legacy. In Mijares, S. G., Rafea, A. & Angha, N., (Eds). A Force Such as the World Has Never Known: Women Creating Change (pp. 40-52). Toronto, ON: Innana Publications.
- Beck, D. M., Dossey, B. M., & Rushton, C. H. (2013). Building the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health — NIGH: Can We Engage and Empower the Public Voices of Nurses Worldwide? Nursing Science Quarterly, 26 (10): 366-371.
- Beck, D. M., Dossey, B. M., & Rushton C. H. (2013). Global Activism, Advocacy, and Transformation: Florence Nightingale’s Legacy for the Twenty-first Century. In Kreitzer, M. J., & Koithan, M. (Eds). Integrative Nursing (pp. 526-537). New York: Oxford Press.
- Beck, D. M. & Dossey, B. M. (2013). Grassroots-to-Global Champions for Maternal Health. Beginnings, 33 (5): 18-19.
- Beck, D. M., Dossey, B. M., & Rushton, C. (2011). Integral Nursing and the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health: Florence Nightingale’s Integral Legacy for The 21st Century. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 6 (4): 71-92.
- Beck, D. M. (2010). Remembering Florence Nightingale’s Panorama: 21st century Nursing — At A Critical Crossroads. Journal of Holistic Nursing Practice, 28 (4): 291-301.
- Beck, D. M. (2010). The Greatest Health Divide in the World — Half Million Die in Childbirth Annually. Beginnings, 30 (1): 10-11.
- Beck, D. M. (2006). Nightingale’s Passion for Advocacy: Local to Global. In Andrist, L. C., Nichols, P. K. & Wolf, K. (Eds). A History of Nursing Ideas (pp. 473-485). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
- Dossey, B.M., Selanders, L., Beck, D.M. & Attewell, A. (2005). Florence Nightingale Today: Healing, Leadership, Global Action. Silver Spring, MD: American Nurses Association NursesBooks.org.
Above video recorded in 2019 at 'Deerhaven Lodge' near Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, Canada, from NIGH's archives.