Mentor, Dissertation Chair, Guiding Light & Friend

Co-Contributor – Jodi Kennedy, MSN, RN, AGACNP

There are moments in life that stop time. The text message, phone call, or email that quite literally takes your breath away. For us, it was the learning of the unexpected death of Wyona Freysteinson, a woman whose significance in our lives is difficult to capture in words.

Dr. Freysteinson was a member of the Nursology.net Advisory team. She was the author of the Neurocognitive Model of Mirror-Viewing and blog contributor. Because of her influence, many of her students have also contributed to the blog.

Before entering academia, Dr. Freysteinson served in leadership roles across the continuum of care, including director of nursing for one of the largest nonprofit home health/hospice organizations in the southwestern United States. She served as President of Sigma Theta Tau, Houston Beta Beta Chapter. Her call to live a life of service was rooted in faith; she extended her commitment to caring for others through parish nursing and community outreach, embodying the compassion and service that defined both her life and career.

Dr. Freysteinson joined Texas Woman’s University as a PhD student in 2011 and rose to the rank of Professor in 2020. Throughout her distinguished career, she devoted herself to advancing nursing scholarship and mentoring future nurse scholars. She taught 11 PhD-level courses,10 undergraduate courses, and guided over 30 PhD nursing science scholars as a Dissertation Chair or Committee member. Her influence on the current and next generation of nurse researchers will continue through the scholars she inspired and the knowledge she helped cultivate.

Her pioneering research transformed the understanding of body image, mirror viewing, embodiment, and the lived experiences of illness, trauma, and visible body change. Her research with women veterans who experienced military sexual trauma, mastectomy, and disfigurement illuminated the undeniable relationship between identity, healing, and the human experience. Through this work, she developed Freysteinson’s Neurocognitive Model of Mirror Viewing, advancing nursing’s understanding of how individuals encounter themselves, reconstruct identity, and move toward healing. Her research and scholarship challenged nurses to look beyond what is visible and seek the deeper meaning within each person’s story.

Yet, Freysteinson’s legacy extends far beyond her academic and research accomplishments. She was our professor, mentor, dissertation chair, cheerleader, our beacon of light, and a cherished friend. She believed in us as scholars and often saw our potential before we fully recognized it in ourselves. We would venture to say that she made all her scholars feel the same way.

We have known Dr. Freysteinson since our first PhD course at Texas Woman’s University in August 2023. Over time, our admiration grew, not only for her astounding contributions to nursing scholarship, academia, and theory, but also for the remarkable woman behind the scholarship. She was brilliant, determined, compassionate, and possessed an indelible passion for advancing nursing knowledge. She possessed a fire in her soul to keep nursing its own profession, to advocate for our professional title, and for Nursologists to be recognized for their scientific contributions.

During the third year of our doctoral journey, she became our dissertation chair. Together, we navigated the arduous process of conducting research exploring the complexities of moving from suffering to healing. From shaping research questions, conducting literature reviews, to overseeing our research design, she remained our steady presence, mentor, encourager, anchor, critical thinker, and unwavering supporter. She celebrated our accomplishments, challenged us to grow, and reminded us that both nursing research and scholarship have the power to transform both the researcher and those whose stories we seek to understand.

As an avid scholar of Ricoeur’s phenomenology, Dr. Freysteinson embodied a rare ability to uncover meanings hidden beneath the surface of the human experience. She guided us during our feasibility research study to see beyond the narratives and discover the deeper significance beneath each story. Her writing reflected the same gift. She brought clarity, respect, elegance, and humanity to the most complex ideas.

Although we may never fully understand why her time on earth was cut short, we carry forward the light that she shared. As her current and former scholars continue her scholarship, we are committed to honoring her beautiful legacy through compassionate scholarship, meaningful and rigorous research, and unwavering dedication to the values she held dear.

Although she was physically petite, she was a force to be reckoned with. Her presence was immense, her voice powerful, and her influence immeasurable. Her legacy lives on not only in her theory and scholarship but in the countless lives she touched, inspired, and transformed. She was the nursing scholar and theorist we aspire to become; we are honored to carry her work forward. As she dances among the angels, may God rest her beautiful soul.

About Jodi Kennedy and Faith Tissot

Faith is a member of the Nursology.net Advisory Team, and is currently embarking on her dissertation project titled: Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Mirror Viewing in Young Adults Aging Out of Foster Care. Dr. Freysteinson has been serving as her dissertation chair.