Ruth Grubesic graduated from Methodist Medical Center School of Nursing with a diploma in nursing, Bradley University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Texas Woman’s University with a Masters in Community Health Nursing, and the University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston Center with a Doctorate in Public Health focusing on International and Family Health. She has been certified as a Public Health Clinical Nurse Specialist since 1997.
She started teaching in the US Peace Corps from 1991-1993 as a nurse educator in Primary Health Care/Community Nursing at the Tribhuvan University in Pokhara, Nepal. She later worked for the US Peace Corps to train Community Health Volunteers and Nurse Educators in Nepal. Following her Peace Corps work she managed a Vaccination and Prevention clinic for a year. She was then hired to teach Community Health as an Adjunct Clinical Instructor at Texas Woman’s University in Houston for a year until they offered her a full-time faculty position. She developed several courses including an undergraduate elective for Medical Spanish, an RN-BS Nursing High Acuity course and a doctoral elective on Global Women’s Health. She served as chair for several Master’s thesis/Pro-papers, and was committee member on many others. She served on several dissertation committees. Two of these were from the Department of Nutrition. She was appointed as of Director of International Nursing Affairs in August 2006 at TWU and took students to Mexico for 7 years, collaborated with University of Rotterdam to exchange NP students, provided an opportunity for students to study at Harlaxton University in England, and provided faculty opportunities for practice in Panama and Vietnam. Her tenure at TWU-Houston ended when she moved to the Texas Hill Country in 2008. At that time, she was offered a job at UT Health School of Nursing in San Antonio, and she taught both undergraduate and graduate community health nursing there for four years.
In 2012 Schreiner hired Dr. Grubesic to teach in the undergraduate nursing program and soon thereafter, she worked with Dean Comuzzie to develop an undergraduate public health program. Ever since, she has been coordinating and teaching public health majors and minors in this program. She continues to teach Population Health didactic and clinical in the undergraduate BSN program for one class per semester. Schreiner Public Health students have traveled with Dr. Grubesic to Guatemala, Nepal and Peru. Most recently she takes students on a study away to promote border health along the Texas/Mexico border. Her research focus is related to community gardening and health outcomes and border health/access to healthcare. She established the SU Campus Community Garden with the assistance of a CTL mini grant. Her passion is public health, community gardening, the environment and global health.
