About our authors
Audrey Berman, PhD, RN, received her BSN from the University of California, San Francisco, and later returned to that campus to obtain her MS in physiological nursing and her PhD in nursing. Her dissertation was entitled Sailing a Course Through Chemotherapy: The Experience of Women with Breast Cancer. She worked in oncology at Samuel Merritt Hospital prior to beginning her teaching career in the diploma program at Samuel Merritt Hospital School of Nursing in 1976. As a faculty member, she participated in the transition of that program into a baccalaureate degree and in the development of the Master of Science and Doctor of Nursing practice programs. Over the years, she has taught a variety of medical-surgical nursing courses in the prelicensure programs on three campuses. She served as the dean of nursing at Samuel Merritt University from 2004 to 2019 and was the 2014 to 2016 president of the California Association of Colleges of Nursing.
Dr. Berman has traveled extensively, visiting nursing and health care institutions in Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, the Soviet Union and Spain. She is a senior director of the Bay Area Tumor Institute and served three years as director on the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs. She is a member of the American Nurses Association and Sigma Theta Tau and is a site visitor for the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. She has twice participated as an NCLEX-RN® item writer for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. She has presented locally, nationally and internationally on topics related to nursing education, breast cancer and technology in healthcare.
Dr. Berman authored the scripts for more than 35 nursing skills videotapes in the 1990s. She was a coauthor of the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th editions of Fundamentals of Nursing and the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th editions of Skills in Clinical Nursing.
Shirlee J. Snyder, EdD, RN, graduated from Columbia Hospital School of Nursing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and subsequently received a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Because of an interest in cardiac nursing and teaching, she earned a Master of Science in nursing with a minor in cardiovascular clinical specialist and teaching from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. A move to California resulted in becoming a faculty member at Samuel Merritt Hospital School of Nursing in Oakland, California. Shirlee was fortunate to be involved in the phasing out of the diploma and ADN programs and development of a baccalaureate intercollegiate nursing program. She held numerous positions during her 15-year tenure at Samuel Merritt College, including curriculum coordinator, assistant director of instruction, dean of instruction and associate dean of the Intercollegiate Nursing Program. She is an associate professor alumnus at Samuel Merritt College. Her interest and experiences in nursing education resulted in Shirlee obtaining a Doctor of Education focused on curriculum and instruction from the University of San Francisco.
Dr. Snyder moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1990 and taught in the ADN program at Portland Community College for 8 years. During this teaching experience she presented locally and nationally on topics related to using multimedia in the classroom and promoting ethnic and minority student success.
Another career opportunity in 1998 led her to the Community College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Dr. Snyder was the nursing program director with responsibilities for the associate degree and practical nursing programs for five years. During this time, she coauthored the 5th edition of Kozier & Erb's Techniques in Clinical Nursing with Audrey Berman.
In 2003, Dr. Snyder returned to baccalaureate nursing education. She embraced the opportunity to be one of the nursing faculty teaching the first nursing class in the baccalaureate nursing program at the first state college in Nevada, which opened in 2002. From 2008 to 2012, she was the dean of the School of Nursing at Nevada State College in Henderson, Nevada. She is currently retired.
Dr. Snyder enjoyed traveling to the Philippines (Manila and Cebu) in 2009 to present all-day seminars to approximately 5,000 nursing students and 200 nursing faculty. She is a member of the American Nurses Association. She has been a site visitor for the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission and the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges.
