Dr. Marlaine C. Smith, RN, AHN-BC, Ph.D.FAAN, is Dean and Helen K. Persson Eminent Scholar in the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, Florida Atlantic University (FAU). From 1988 to 2006 she was on the faculty of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center School of Nursing, serving as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and the Director of the Center for Integrative Caring Practice for six years. She has been a nurse educator since 1976 with other faculty appointments at Duquesne University, Pennsylvania State University, and LaRoche College in Pittsburgh. Her research has focused on outcomes of touch therapies as an expression of caring. Dr. Smith has written a variety of theoretical, philosophical, practice, research, and review articles related to caring.