Siena Heights Nursing Award Named for
Sister Sharon McGuire, OP
May 9, Adrian, Michigan – when Siena Heights University nursing students Cincerie (Cindy) King and Christopher Rising received an award of excellence recently, they weren’t the only ones to be honored. The Sister Sharon McGuire Academic Excellence Award also recognized the valuable contributions of the Adrian Dominican Sister who had been a founding faculty member of the University’s School of Nursing.
“I feel like I’ve left a legacy,” Sister Sharon said later in an interview. She was the first faculty member of the School of Nursing when it opened its doors in the fall of 2008. She has since retired from Siena Heights, but has left a lasting impact.
“The focus of my life has been with immigrants,” Sister Sharon said. “I got into nursing because I could see the needs of immigrants and migrants for health care.”
Sister Sharon holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Barry University, Miami Shores, Florida; a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Miami; and a PhD in nursing from the University of San Diego – as well as a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Siena Heights and a master’s in education from Wayne State University, Detroit. She has also been certified as a nurse practitioner and as a transcultural nurse.
Sister Sharon’s nursing practice has taken her to Miami, Florida, and to the Southwest. She has focused on AIDS patients in the 1980s and made a tremendous impact on the lives of underserved and undocumented patients in El Paso Texas, and San Diego, California. In addition, she has served retired Adrian Dominican Sisters at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian.
Along with her nursing, Sister Sharon has an extensive history in academics, both as a teacher and a student. Before teaching at Siena Heights, she had taught RN to BSN students at the University of San Diego, as well as in more traditional settings such as elementary schools, middle schools, and health care facilities.
Sister Sharon discovered her abilities as a scholar while working on her PhD, focusing on the health care of immigrants and undocumented workers. “Now, to my surprise, I’m recognized a leading scholar in this area,” she said. “I never knew I had the scholar in me until I started my doctoral program.”
Even after retirement, Sister Sharon is writing a chapter in Theories and Philosophies of Emancipatory Nursing: Social Justice as Praxis.