Working as an RN for 36 years as a clinician and educator has equipped Gena with a wide range of nursing experiences and varied skills to meet the educational needs of today's students. She has a MSEd and MSN. During her professional career, Gena served as a staff nurse, assistant head nurse of a medical-surgical unit, continuing education instructor, associate professor in an LPN, LPN-RN, and ADN program, and director of an associate degree nursing program. She has taught LPN, ADN, BSN, and MSN nursing students. As a faculty member she taught many nursing courses and served on a statewide curriculum committee for a state college. As director of an associate degree nursing program, she was… instrumental in starting and obtaining state board approval of an LPN-RN nursing program. She also assisted with the development of an associate degree program in a state college. Her master's research thesis was titled, An Investigation of Learning Styles of Practical and Baccalaureate Students. The results of the study are published in the Journal of Nursing Education. She has co-authored six textbooks, two foundations of nursing texts, two medical-surgical textbooks, a foundations of maternal and pediatric nursing, and a transitions text for LPN to RN students. Gena presented the topic Clinical Practicum: Ready or Not, at the Health Occupations Students of America 2010 Education Symposium. She has been an active member of Sigma Theta Tau.
Co-author Rene DePew began her career as an LPN, obtained her BSN, then her Masters as a Nurse Practitioner. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Saint Francis.