Dr. EM V. Garcia has a diverse professional nursing background in leadership and management, education, and clinical practice. He has held various positions in healthcare serving as chief nurse executive and director of nursing services for critical and emergency care; perioperative and perianesthesia care; trauma care; wound care and hyperbaric medicine; imaging, cardiac catheterization and vascular laboratories; and population health. He has first-hand, real-world experiences within the ever-changing healthcare environment.  He continues to practice as a registered nurse leader dealing with the ever-changing demands of healthcare organizations, federal and state regulatory agencies, and national accrediting organizations. Dr. Garcia currently serves as Administrator | Chief Nursing Officer of two acute care hospitals in Los Angeles, California.  Most recently, Dr. Garcia was elected as the founding President of the California State Chapter of The International Nurses Society on Addictions (Cal-IntNSA) – the only voice of addictions nursing in the State of California.

Dr. Garcia shares relevant real-life circumstances to facilitate meaningful and substantive learning experiences. Dr. Garcia's educational highlights feature clinical care, critical thinking, strategic management, practical patient care management approaches, evidence-based solutions to healthcare problems, and implementation of best or leading practices to ensure safe and effective delivery of health care related services influencing academia, leadership, and practice outcomes. He collaborates with patients and their families, physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers in the delivery of care, treatment, and other health care services; and develops systems and processes to improve organizational outcomes.

Dr. Garcia continues to referee for the Sigma Theta Tau International, Honor Society of Nursing’s official publication – the Journal of Nursing Scholarship. He reviewed nursing references for notable publishers. He has served as curriculum and instructional developer in forensic nursing science. He was a recipient of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s scholarship in distance education.

Dr. Garcia strongly supports higher education and continuously campaign for the advancement of science and art in health education, especially nursing. His applied doctoral dissertation focused on knowledge, skill, and attitude as a functional-conceptual framework for professional development and outcomes improvement. He is a doctoral alumni of the pioneering university in osteopathic medicine, Andrew Taylor Still University of Health Sciences where he excelled in the field of health education; and a doctor of philosophy in management.  His applied dissertation utilized global literature and systematic scientific process in measuring clinical documentation and its role in patient care management.  He has a master of science in nursing with specialization in nursing education and a master in business administration with a concentration in healthcare administration.  Adding to his diverse academic achievement, he received a master of arts degree in education with a focus on educational administration and supervision and an undergraduate degree in nursing science from the Republic of the Philippines.  He advocates and has high regards for quality, safe, efficient, effective, and higher standard of professional nursing practice in the domains of clinical service, administration and leadership, and higher education. 

Dr. Garcia has certificate in forensic nursing and legal nursing as a certified specialist.  He is also a nationally certified nurse in perioperative nursing (CNOR); surgical services management (CSSM); and primary care nurse practitioner (NP-C).  He has been honored as a Fellow in the American College of Legal Nurse Consulting (FACLNC); and the International Academy of Addictions Nursing (FIAAN).

In his classes, he challenges students to aspire to become "world class" leaders in their respective fields; believe in the value of service excellence; and achieve meaningful scholarship.  In order to assess, examine, analyze, and evaluate students’ achievement, students must demonstrate active learning (knowledge development and conceptual understanding/synthesis, substantive participation and submission of quality scholarly papers), satisfy the requirements set by the higher educational institutions (not limited to academic policies and procedures and program/course requisites), and reveal ability to exercise effective decision-making and apply essential concepts learner into practice in various administrative, educational, academic, and clinical settings.