Mary Fey, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN
Associate Director, Division of Applied Learning for Performance and Safety
Harvard Center for Medical Simulation
Dr. Mary Fey is an internationally recognized nurse educator and leader in health professions education with more than two decades of experience. Her clinical background is in adult critical care nursing, and she earned her PhD and Certificate in Teaching from the University of Maryland, where her research focused on debriefing in simulation-based education.
She began her academic career at a rural community college and has since held influential roles including Associate Professor and Director of the Debra L. Spunt Clinical Simulation Laboratory at the University of Maryland School of Nursing and Associate Dean for a BSN program. A Fellow of both the Academy of Nursing Education and the American Academy of Nursing, Dr. Fey is known for her ability to translate complex educational theory into practical strategies that improve teaching and learning.
Her expertise spans faculty development, curriculum design, brain-based learning, assessment, and feedback. Her scholarship explores how the teacher–learner relationship shapes learning outcomes and psychological safety in the classroom, clinical, and simulation settings.
Currently, Dr. Fey serves as Associate Director in the Division of Applied Learning for Performance and Safety at the Harvard Center for Medical Simulation in Boston, MA. She works with health professions programs across the United States, South America, and Europe to align educational practices with competency-based education (CBE) principles and performance improvement science.
As co-founder of Transformative Teaching, Dr. Fey partners with nursing faculty nationwide to develop skills in coaching, assessment, and feedback. Transformative Teaching provides Coaching Workshop Series for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, helping faculty adopt the mindset and methods of the “faculty coach.” This work reflects her belief that effective coaching, grounded in trust and reflective dialogue, is central to developing clinical competence and confidence in nursing students.