Dr. Theda McPheron-Keel
Theda J. McPheron-Keel, RN, CRRN, MA, MS, MA, CHES (Ph.D.) is a Registered Nurse with advanced specialization as a rehabilitation nurse (CRRN). She holds additional undergraduate degrees in sociology, psychology, and pre-med biology/nursing. Ms. McPheron-Keel also has three Master’s Degrees. These include a Masters of Arts degree in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona, a Master’s of Science degree in Community Health Education from West Virginia University’s School of Medicine, and a Master’s of Arts in Applied Social Research, Sociology/Anthropology from West Virginia University. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES). Currently, she is finalizing a Ph.D. in Public and Community Health at the University of Maryland, with emphasis in survey research as part of the University of Michigan and the University of Maryland Joint Survey Statistical Degree Program.
Her thesis at the University of Arizona was Predisposing Cultural Factors Related to Cancer Occurrence among American Indians. At West Virginia University, a joint program allowed her thesis topics for both departments to be combined into The Need for Cancer Data Specific to American Indians. Her dissertation research at the University of Maryland is entitled Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors Surrounding Ceremonial Tobacco Use among American Indians in Arizona. All of Ms. McPheron-Keel’s theses and dissertation research has been conducted in Arizona among the tribal populations there in which she continues to have strong ties. Ms. McPheron-Keel also serves in Cancer Prevention at the NCI, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. Her research interests are tobacco, cancer prevention, and health disparities among American Indians. In addition to her degree programs, Ms. McPheron-Keel also attends Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health Ph.D. Graduate Studies in Epidemiology and Biostatistics program. Her studies have focused on Tobacco Control and in Social Epidemiology. As part of the National Cancer Institute’s Native Researchers Cancer Control Training Program since 1997, she has received extensive training that remains ongoing at the University of Arizona Native Research Training Center (Dr. Jennie Joe, Director) and Oregon Health Sciences University (Dr. Thomas Becker, Director) and at the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland. She has twice completed the NCI’s Curriculum in Cancer Studies as part of its Post-Doctoral Fellowship Training Program.
In 1998, Ms. McPheron-Keel founded a nonprofit organization, Wind Hollow Foundation, which focuses on American Indian needs nationally in such areas as health care, economic development, cultural development and preservation, and cross-cultural education programs. Ms. McPheron-Keel has also established two for-profit companies, Wind Hollow Native Energy (WHNE) and Adaptive Living Solutions (ALS) with offices currently in Phoenix, Arizona and Anadarko, Oklahoma. Ms. McPheron-Keel teaches, lectures, and writes nationally on cultural awareness issues, health care policy, health education, traditional medicine, and spiritual beliefs of American Indians, access issues for minority populations, and community consensus and coalition building. Ms. McPheron-Keel is an enrolled member of the Southeastern Cherokee and a hereditary member of the Lower Creek Nation of Alabama.
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