Deborah McCrea, EdD, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, CNS, CNE, CEN, CFRN, EMT-P, is an assistant professor in the department of Graduate Studies. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from UTHealth Houston in 1983. She then competed her Master of Science in Nursing with a clinical focus on Emergency Medicine and the role of Education and Administration in 1992.  She returned to complete the Emergency Nurse Practitioner Post Master’s Certificate in 1998 and then the Family Nurse Practitioner Post Master’s Certificate in 2013. She completed her doctorate at University of Houston in the Professional Leadership in Health Science Education (Ed.D) in 2019.

McCrea’s nursing experience includes critical care nursing at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in the CV recovery room, and the medical/surgical, coronary care, neurology/neurosurgery and transplant critical care units.  She also worked in PACU and day surgery recovery when in the ICU Float Pool and the Emergency Department.  Once she obtained her MSN, she worked for the Houston Fire Department as a Nurse Clinician and Prehospital Clinical Nurse Specialist. She was responsible for training, quality assurance and research in the prehospital setting for Basic Life Support Ambulances, Advanced Life Support Ambulances and the Emergency Dispatch Office. She also gained experience as a fixed wing flight nurse on international flights for many years for a private company. She practiced as an Emergency Nurse Practitioner in the Houston area and in a retail health care clinic as a Family Nurse Practitioner.

McCrea’s teaching experience began by teaching CPR while still in high school. She was adjunct faculty in the nursing department at San Jacinto College North Campus.  McCrea has spent almost 20 years as an adjunct and full-time faculty at Houston Community College, Department of Emergency Medical Services. Her workload at HCC included teaching first-responder classes, EMT, EMT- Intermediate/AEMT and Paramedic classes. She was lead Paramedic Faculty and help set up clinical rotations. She joined Cizik SON teaching in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. She has co-coordinated over six UTHealth Interprofessional Mass Casualty Realistic Simulation Drills and has produced several posters and lectures on this topic.

McCrea was among “20 Outstanding Nurses of 2017” honored by the Texas Nurses Association (TNA) District 9 Foundation on Nov. 9, 2017. She was also the recipient of the Hurricane Harvey Hero’s Award by the Texas Nurses Association District 9, Nov. 9, 2017. She was also a nominee for the UT McGovern Outstanding Teaching Award 2021. She has been very involved in the Emergency Nurses Association at the local, state, and national level since 1992. She is also on several committees for the American Academy of Emergency Nurse Practitioners (AAENP) and is currently the newsletter editor. McCrea also is the recipient of two scholarships: the Frank L. Cole Advanced Practice Nursing Scholarship from the Texas State Council of ENA, the Houston Chapter of ENA Scholarship, the Houston Area Nurse Practitioner Scholarship, and the National ENA State Challenge Doctoral Scholarship.

Her passions, besides emergency and critical care nursing, is Diabetes Education. She has been an Insulin Pump/Continuous Glucose Sensor Trainer for more than a decade and has been part of the medical staff at the local Diabetes Camps for children with type 1 diabetes for many years. She has co-authored several articles on Insulin Pump Use in the hospital setting. She is very involved in her church as a medical volunteer team during worship and student retreats.