About Lucia
About Lucia
LUCIA THORNTON, ThD, RN, MSN, AHN-BC
Lucia is a former president of the American Holistic Nurses Association
and has been involved in nursing, holistic healing and healthcare for over 40 years. Lucia has taught undergraduate and graduate nursing students at California State University Fresno and throughout the country for the Certificate Program
in Holistic Nursing. She has held clinical, managerial, and administrative positions in various organizations and hospital settings including emergency and trauma, intensive care, nursing education, research and development, school nursing, and quality assurance.
Dr. Thornton helped develop one of the first inpatient hospice homes in the country over 30 years ago. She was instrumental in creating the process of Board Certification for Holistic Nursing in the United States and served as the first Executive Director of the American Holistic Nursing Certification Corporation.
She developed the Model of Whole-Person Caring
which was the recipient of the 2004 Norman Cousin’s award and serves as a prototype for creating health and wellness for individuals, organizations and communities. Her work in transforming hospitals and organizations into “healing and healthy environments” has received national, state and local recognition.
She is the author of Whole Person Caring: An Interprofessional Model for Healing and Wellness
published by Sigma Theta Tau, the International Honor Society for Nursing.
Lucia facilitates workshops and seminars to audiences interested in creating health and wellness in their organizations, schools, communities and personal lives. She speaks nationally and internationally at professional conferences on topics related to interprofessional collaboration, whole-person caring, self-care & self-healing practices, holistic & integrative nursing, holistic & integrative nursing approaches to pain management, nursing’s role in the new health care paradigm, and spirituality in healthcare.
Dr. Thornton serves on the national boards of the Integrative Health Policy Consortium (IHPC) and the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine (AIHM).
Lucia is committed to bringing health and caring back into healthcare. She is dedicated to creating a pluralistic paradigm that welcomes all healers and healing professions to participate in a health system that promotes health, healing, caring, and well-being.