Director of Clinical & Cross-Cultural Training
Contact: mgardner@communitywi.com
Marilyn Gardner is the Director of Clinical and Cross-cultural Education at CWI. In this capacity, Marilyn develops and coordinates our cross-cultural and clinical courses. Her work includes relationship building in marginalized and under-resourced communities to better understand both the strengths and challenges that communities face in accessing health and human services.
Marilyn is a public health nurse and writer who grew up in the country of Pakistan and has lived and worked in Pakistan, Egypt, the Kurdish Region of Iraq, and five different states in the United States. Her work and writing come from a place of deep understanding and compassion of what it is like to live and work in countries where the language and culture can emerge as barriers to care. Marilyn has written two books – Between Worlds: Essays on Culture and Belonging and Worlds Apart – A Third Culture Kid’s Journey. Her writing also appears in Plough Magazine, Fathom Magazine, Among Worlds Magazine, A Life Overseas Community Blog, and her own blog – Communicating Across Boundaries.
Marilyn is a Registered Nurse with a Bachelor of Science degree in health care administration. She also has a graduate certificate from Suffolk University in health and human service management. She is a certified cultural competency trainer through the former National Asian Women’s Health Organization as well as a certified Mental Health First Aid instructor. She is passionate about understanding more of what it means to communicate across the boundaries of culture and faith.
Marilyn gave birth to five children on three continents and loves her big, constantly expanding family. She loves her passport, her family, and her faith in reverse order. Her favorite activity is finding spaces in coffee shops around the world to write and observe life around her.