Speakers
Opening Keynote Presentation
Emerging issues surrounding social and structural determinants of health and implications to nursing science
Speaker:

Vincent Guilamo-Ramos
Vice Chancellor for Nursing Affairs
Duke University School of Nursing
Biography:
Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, MPH, LCSW, RN, ANP-BC, PMHNP-BC, FAAN, is Dean and Distinguished Professor of the Duke University School of Nursing and Vice Chancellor for Nursing Affairs, Duke University. He is also the founding director of the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health (CLAFH) at Duke University. Dr. Guilamo-Ramos is a nurse practitioner dually-licensed in primary care (ANP-BC) and psychiatric-mental health nursing (PMHNP-BC). Widely regarded as an expert, scholar and leader in adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health promotion and the social determinants of health (SDOH), Dr. Guilamo-Ramos’ research has been funded externally for two decades by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and various other federal agencies. His research focuses on the role of families in promoting adolescent and young adult health among Latinos and in other underserved communities, with a special focus on mitigating the mechanisms through which SDOH shape health outcomes and inequities. Most recently, Dr. Guilamo-Ramos has applied SDOH mitigation principles to the design of a nurse-led and family-based approach to increase COVID-19 testing, vaccine uptake, and overall household capacity for COVID-19 mitigation in medically and socioeconomically underserved communities, an application currently being evaluated as part of the National Institutes of Health’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics in Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) initiative. Dr. Guilamo-Ramos currently serves as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), the HHS Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents, and the CDC/HRSA Advisory Committee on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and STD Prevention and Treatment. He also serves as chair of the Power to Decide Board of Directors, as vice chair of the Latino Commission on AIDS Board of Directors, and on the Board of the HIV Medicine Association.
Moderator:

Hudson Santos Jr.
Delores J. Chambreau Endowed Chair in Nursing
University of Miami
Biography:
Dr. Santos is an internationally renowned nurse researcher and principal investigator of multiple funded studies focused on the mechanisms of social determinants of health (SDOH) and developmental health trajectories for at-risk populations. Specifically, he explores how SDOH, and adverse life events affect maternal-child health and developmental outcomes among at-risk children. His methodological expertise includes bio-social studies, longitudinal cohorts, and clinical interventions. His work bridges the gap between the biological and social domains in nursing science, addressing the developmental origins of health and disease.
Session: Advancing Health Equity through Research Teams and Translation
Speakers:

Jada Brooks
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing
Biography:
Jada L. Brooks (Lumbee), PhD, MSPH, RN, FAAN is Associate Professor and Ross Distinguished Term Scholar of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing. One of few Indigenous nurses holding a doctoral degree, Dr. Brooks is widely regarded as a scholar and leader in health disparities research with tribal communities in North Carolina. Funded externally for two decades by the National Institutes of Health, her 20+ years of community-engaged research focuses on environmental conditions that shape health outcomes and inequalities among American Indians. Dr. Brooks collaborates with community partners to adapt and implement interventions that foster health equity and revitalize tribal communities. She is currently PI on a planning grant to adapt a cardiovascular health promotion intervention for American Indian women, co-I on an RCT to improve self-care behaviors among hypertensive American Indian adults, and co-I on a study promoting mental health among American Indian youth.

Carolyn Harmon Still
Case Western Reserve University
Biography:
Dr. Carolyn Still is an Associate Professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). She received her BSN and MSN from Florida A&M University and completed her PhD and Business degrees at CWRU. Dr. Still has conducted research over the last 17 years and her research expertise includes hypertension clinical trials in older populations, psychosocial assessment, and management of chronic diseases in older adults, and recruitment and retention of minorities in clinical trials. Her current work focuses on the intersection of health disparities and health equity in cardiovascular health and outcomes. Dr. Still currently has several NIH funded grants focused on improving the health of minorities with cardiovascular disease. She is board certified, as an Adult /Geriatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner. In addition, she currently serves in various leadership roles in several local, regional, and national nursing committees.

Diane Santa Maria
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Cizik School of Nursing
Biography:
Dr. Santa Maria is Dean and Professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Cizik School of Nursing. She is co-director of the Texas Developmental Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Mentoring Program and Substance Use Scientific Working Group and the Nurse Leader for the Texas Medical Center Baylor College of Medicine Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) program. She has expertise in the development, testing, and refinement of various prevention interventions among high-risk communities, especially marginalized youth.
She currently leads an NIH-funded R01 randomized controlled trial of a nurse case management HIV prevention intervention among with youth experiencing homelessness and PrEP adherence among sexual and gender minority identifying youth. She is studying the impact of COVID-19, vaccine uptake, and prevalence of SARS-coV-2 antibodies among youth and is co-developing an intervention to address emotion regulation, stress management, and impulse control using mindfulness strategies among sheltered young adults.
Moderator:

Dalmacio Dennis Flores
University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing
Biography:
Dr. Dalmacio Dennis Flores is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing and an affiliated faculty at the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. He is a Visiting Professor at the Center for Research on AIDS at Yale University’s School of Public Health. He leads several studies that investigates the role of parents in the sexual health education of adolescent youth who identify as LGBTQ. Through interventions around inclusive parent-child communication, he focuses on the early provision of sexual health information attuned to the emergent attractions, behavior, and identities of LGBTQ adolescents to reduce this population’s risks for HIV/STI infection and negative mental health.
Discussion with NINR Director
Speaker:

Shannon Zenk
National Institute of Nursing Research
National Institutes of Health
Biography:
Shannon N. Zenk, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN is Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). She joined NINR in September 2020, following a 14-year career as a faculty member at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Nursing and Institute for Health Research and Policy. Her background is in nursing and public health. Dr. Zenk’s own research focuses on community environments as a social determinant of health and health inequities. She and her team conducted pioneering research on food deserts in the United States. Dr. Zenk is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and was inducted into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame in 2019.
Moderator:

Ronald Hickman Jr.
Ruth M. Anderson Professor
Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
Case Western Reserve University
Biography:
Dr. Ronald Hickman is the inaugural Ruth M. Anderson Endowed Chair and Associate Dean for Research at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University(CWRU). He is a registered nurse and a board-certified acute care nurse practitioner who has provided care for patients undergoing general and cardiothoracic surgery, and patients in the intensive care unit. As a nurse scientist, Dr. Hickman is nationally known for his pioneering work focused on technology-based solutions to improve chronic disease self-management and end-of-life care. His innovative work integrates knowledge from several disciplinary domains to develop technologies and understand biobehavioral mechanisms that influence how patients and their families make decisions and manage their health or an acute illness.
National Research Priorities
Speakers:

Kelly Dunham
Office of the Chief Science Officer
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
Biography:
Kelly Dunham serves as Senior Manager, Strategic Initiatives at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). In this role, she manages the operational aspects of the portfolio to meet PCORI’s strategic goals, including work in research strategy, portfolio development, and portfolio syntheses. In her role at PCORI and through collaboration with other health research funders through the Ensuring Value in Research (EViR) Funders’ Forum, Ms. Dunham works to improve efficiency and to identify and share best practices in health-related research funding. Previously Ms. Dunham served as Senior Manager, Research Synthesis and as Program Officer in the CER Methods Program at PCORI. Prior to joining PCORI, Ms. Dunham worked at the Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit at the University of Michigan and the Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care Outcomes Research (CHP/PCOR) at Stanford University. Ms. Dunham received her MPP from the University of Michigan.

Monica Webb Hooper
Office of the Director
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
National Institutes of Health
Biography:
Dr. Monica Webb Hooper is Deputy Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). She is an integral member of the Institute’s leadership, working closely with the Director to oversee all aspects of the institute and to support critical scientific initiatives and recommendations to improve minority health, reduce health disparities, and promote health equity. Dr. Webb Hooper also co-leads Working Groups for NIH-wide initiatives to understand and address the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 among populations with health disparities.
Dr. Webb Hooper is an internationally recognized translational behavioral scientist and licensed clinical health psychologist. She has dedicated her career to the scientific study of minority health and racial/ethnic disparities, focusing on chronic illness prevention and health behavior change.
Dr. Webb Hooper completed her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of South Florida, internship in medical psychology from the University of Florida Health Sciences Center, and her Bachelor of Science from the University of Miami.
Moderator:

Windy Alonso
University of Nebraska Medical Center
College of Nursing - Omaha Division
Biography:
Dr. Alonso is an assistant professor, heart failure nurse scientist, and rural health advocate at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Alonso holds a PhD in Nursing from Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on gaining a better understanding of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and developing interventions to promote exercise in adults with heart failure that can be applied in diverse, low resource settings. In addition to a pre-doctoral fellowship from the National Institute of Nursing Research, she has received funding from the Heart Failure Society of America, the Rural Nurse Organization, the Midwest Nursing Research Society, the UNMC Center for Patient, Family, and Community Engagement in Chronic Care Management, and the Great Plains IdEA-CTR Network supported by NIGMS. Dr. Alonso’s team has been published in several prominent academic journals including the Journal of Cardiac Failure, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, and the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing.
Concurrent RWJF Future of Nursing Scholars Session: (In)Justice in Nursing Research and Practice
Speakers:

Gaea A. Daniel
Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing
Biography:
Dr. Gaea Daniel is an Assistant Professor at Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing where her program of research focuses on understanding the sociocultural and environmental influences that affect sexual health behaviors and outcomes. She is particularly interested in sexual health outcomes of Black women that present as race-based disparities. Dr. Daniel is an Emory BIRCWH Scholar and a Gilead Sciences Research Scholar who devotes her time to diversity-related initiatives in research and the nursing profession. She received a PhD in Nursing from Emory University, a Master of Science in Nursing from Augusta University, and a Bachelor of Liberal Studies from Mercer University.
Navdeep Singh
University of Toledo
Biography:
Dr. Navdeep Singh’s research focuses on racial disparities in African Americans with cancer pain. His interest in pain management began when working as an RN in the Burn ICU and witnessing excruciating painful procedures. He has Beta Thalassemia and spent much of his childhood admitted in hospital wards with sickle cell patients, which also sparked a passion for alleviating pain in marginalized groups at an early age. Dr. Singh received his PhD from Wayne State University. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Toledo in Toledo, OH. He continues to practice as a Nurse Practitioner in PM&R.

Daniel Smith
Biography:
Daniel Jackson Smith, PhD, AGPCNP-BC, CNE, is the Weingarten Endowed Assistant Professor at Villanova University's M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing and a primary care nurse practitioner at LCH Health and Community Services in Kennett Square, PA. During his PhD Studies, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholar, Cohort 5. His dissertation focused on studying the link between occupational exposures (specifically, high heat conditions) and the development of kidney disease in migrant worker communities throughout the Southeastern United States. Dr. Smith’s overarching research interest lies at the intersection of climate change and other environmental exposures on the health outcomes of disenfranchised populations and how clinician-scholars can build climate resilience and adaptation skills in communities & health systems. His current program of research focuses on developing interventions to mitigate the impacts of climate change and negative environmental exposures on disenfranchised communities across the United States.
Moderator:

Jewel Scott
University of South Carolina College of Nursing
Biography:
Dr. Jewel Scott’s research focuses on promoting health and preventing the cardiovascular disease risk associated with mental illness, stress, and related social determinants of health among young Black women. Her research is informed by over a decade of experience as a nurse practitioner in federally qualified community health centers. Dr. Scott has received research awards from the American Association Colleges of Nursing, American Heart Association, and was recently cited by the World Health Organization. She completed her Ph.D. in nursing at Duke University and is currently an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina College of Nursing.
Early-Career SIG Session: Navigating Structural Barriers to Advancement as an Early-Career Scientist
Speaker:

Wrenetha Julion
Rush University College of Nursing
Biography:
Dr. Julion is a Professor and Inaugural Dean for Equity & Inclusion in the Rush University College of Nursing. She is responsible for spearheading strategic planning for diversity, equity, and inclusion for students, faculty, and staff. She is co-Principal Investigator on a five-year grant from the Administration for Children and Families to test a Model of Father Inclusive Prenatal Care. This research is being conducted with prenatal clinics in Chicago, and Skills for Chicagoland’s Future (a workforce development agency). She is Co-Investigator on a newly funded RO-1 study (PI M. Reed) through the National Institute for Diabetes & Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to apply anti-racist praxis to Black Girls Move, a mother-daughter physical activity and lifestyle intervention. Dr. Julion is committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in health care; cultural sensibility in health care professionals; and is passionate about supporting the wellbeing of families of color.
Moderators:

Rachel Pozzar
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Biography:
Rachel Pozzar, PhD, RN, FNP-BC is the Vice-Chair of the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science Early Career Special Interest Group. Dr. Pozzar is currently a nurse scientist in the Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care Services at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research is focused on patient-clinician communication; health-related quality of life; symptom science; and treatment decision making among individuals with gynecologic cancers. Dr. Pozzar received a PhD from Northeastern University, an MSN from Boston College, and a BSN from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Dr. Pozzar completed a post-doctoral fellowship in oncology nursing science at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a fellowship in medical decision making with the Society for Medical Decision Making.

Nancy Dias
East Carolina University
Biography:
Dr. Dias is an Associate Professor at East Carolina University, NC. She completed her PhD at Duke University School of Nursing and a 1-year post-doctoral fellowship at Indiana University School of Nursing. As a researcher, she has a niche for a very significant aspect of pediatric palliative care services that includes parent caregiver health outcomes, their bereavement processes, and innovative technology. She strives to lay the foundations to develop a body of research that can make innovative and significant contributions in palliative, end of life care, and bereavement care with a focus on developing and testing interventions to improve health outcomes of parents and families of children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. She received a research grant from the Palliative care Research Cooperative group and is the recipient of the Research Nurse of the Year Award 2020, from North Carolina Nurses Association and Outstanding Faculty award 2022 from ECU.
Mid-Career SIG Session: The 360° View of Mid-Career
Speakers:

Paule Joseph
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
National Institutes of Health
Biography:
Dr. Paule V. Joseph, is a 2019 Lasker Scholar and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Distinguished Scholar. She is Chief of the Sensory Science and Metabolism Sectiont (SenSMet) at the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) with a dual appointment at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Dr. Joseph received an AAS in Nursing at Hostos Community College, a BSN from the College of New Rochelle, and a Master of Science with a specialty as a Family Nurse Practitioner from Pace University. She completed her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and conducted her PhD work at the Monell Chemical Senses Center. She then completed a Workforce Diversity Clinical and Translational Postdoctoral Fellowship at the NINR. Combined Dr. Joseph has over 15 years of clinical, research, and academic experience. She is conducting preclinical, clinical, and translational studies to improve the diagnosis, prevention, and management of chemosensory disorders and symptoms— in chronic conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes—by examining the role that smell and taste play in those conditions.Dr. Joseph is devoted to promoting diversity and decreasing health disparities. Her visionary leadership of national and global non-profits has focused on increasing the promotion of health within underserved populations and increasing diversity among the next generation of clinical and translational researchers.

Rita Pickler
Science Programs
The Ohio State University
Biography:
Dr. Rita Pickler, the FloAnn Sours Easton Professor of Child and Adolescent Health at The Ohio State University College of Nursing, was educated at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University of Virginia. Her 30+ years of research focuses preterm infants and their families with funding from the NIH for over 20 years. She is currently PI on a grant exploring childhood adversity and cell senescence, co-I on a RCT to reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes in Mexican Hispanic women, and co-I on a study examining nursing care reliability in the NICU. She has mentored a number of early career scientists. She has served on numerous NIH review committees and on the NINR Advisory Council. She is a fellow in American Academy of Nursing, was inducted into STTI Researcher Hall of Fame, and received the MNRS 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award. She edits Nursing Research.
Moderator:

Ansley Grimes Stanfill
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Biography:
Dr. Ansley Stanfill, Associate Dean of Research for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Nursing, received a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Vanderbilt University, her BSN from Saint Louis University, her PhD from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and her postdoctoral training in genomics from the University of Pittsburgh. Her work is on the influence of genetic and epigenetic factors on long-term outcomes in neurological injury. She is currently PI of a NIH/NINR R01 titled “A multivariate predictive model for long-term disability post subarachnoid hemorrhage in Caucasian and African American populations.”She also serves as a PI for a Department of Defense funded grant on long term cognitive sequelae following mild traumatic brain injury. She has been published many times in basic science and nursing research journals and regularly presents her work at local, regional, national, and international conferences.
Clinical Nurse Scientist SIG Session: Acute Stroke Clinical Research: Hemodynamic Interventions & Service Improvement for Vulnerable, Underserved Patients
Speaker:

Anne Alexandrov
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center at Memphis
Biography:
Dr. Anne Alexandrov is a Professor of Nursing and Neurology, and Mobile Stroke Unit (MSU) Chief Nurse Practitioner at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. She is also Professor and Program Director for the NET SMART advanced practice fellowship program (www.learnstroke.com). Dr. Alexandrov received her MSN from the University of Texas at Houston (dual concentrations: Emergency & Critical Care); her PhD awarded by Texas Woman’s University focused on systemic and intracranial hemodynamics. Her primary program of research examines innovative intracranial hemodynamic augmentation in stroke, with a secondary interest in stroke systems of care. Dr. Alexandrov is President of the Association of Neurovascular Clinicians (ANVC) and Treasurer of the Prehospital Stroke Treatment Organization (PRESTO; international MSU organization). Her leadership developed The Joint Commission’s Stroke Center Certification program and selection of Centers for Medicare/Medicaid stroke core measures. She has received numerous awards, including the 2022 AACN Distinguished Research Lecturer Award.
Moderator:

Bradi Granger
Director of the Duke University Heart Center Nursing Research Program
Biography:
Dr. Bradi Granger is a Research Professor at Duke University School of Nursing, Director of the Duke Heart Center Nursing Research Program, and adjunct faculty at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She is also a core faculty at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. Dr. Granger received her doctorate in nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her MSN from Duke University, and her BSN from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Dr. Granger has extensive clinical experience in cardiovascular nursing, and her clinical work as a Clinical Nurse Specialist has been dedicated to overcoming barriers to the use and conduct of research in the service setting through the development of tools that change how nurses learn about, apply, and conduct nursing science. Dr. Granger is an active member of CANS, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, the American Heart Association, and the European Society for Patient Adherence, Compliance, and Persistence.
Keynote Presentation
Advancing policy and practice in the context of social and structural determinants of health
Speaker:

Bridgette (Brawner) Rice
M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing
Villanova University
Biography:
Dr. Bridgette M. (Brawner) Rice is the Richard and Marianne Kreider Endowed Professor in Nursing for Vulnerable Populations in the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing at Villanova University. She holds degrees from Villanova University (BSN ‘03), the University of Pennsylvania (MSN ‘05, PhD ‘09) and Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University (MDiv ‘17). Dr. (Brawner) Rice began her nursing career in neonatal intensive care at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She has since expanded her work to community-based practice. A recognized behavioral health and intervention development expert, she has worked on a myriad of HIV/STI risk reduction programs both locally and internationally for youth with mental illnesses and difficulties with emotion regulation. More recently, her methodological advances have been applied to address multiple health inequities (e.g., youth mental health service utilization, cardiovascular disease risk among young Black men, gun violence) where she uses novel approaches including mixed methods research and GIS mapping. Cognizant of the role of geography in health, her spatially-based research explicates and intervenes in factors such as neighborhood disadvantage to prevent disease and promote health equity. Dr. (Brawner) Rice does this community-engaged work in close collaboration with key community members (e.g., youth, faith-based institutions, policy makers). She is a staunch justice advocate who believes that research can be leveraged as an advocacy tool to ensure all individuals have an opportunity to achieve their full health potential. With a commitment to diversifying the healthcare workforce, she is the Immediate Past Chair of the National Advisory Committee of the Minority Fellowship Program at the American Nurses Association (ANA)/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations (SAMHSA), and was recently appointed as a Commissioner on the ANA’s National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing. Her work has been featured through multiple media outlets, and she has received numerous honors and awards, including the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research Protégée Award in 2015 and the International Society of Psychiatric Nurses Diversity and Equity Award in 2020.
Moderator:

Susan Storey
Indiana University School of Nursing
Biography:
Susan Storey is an Assistant Professor, at Indiana University School of Nursing in Indianapolis, IN. Her program of research is influenced by over 25 years of clinical practice as an oncology Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) in an acute care setting. During her time as an APN, Dr. Storey noted that cancer survivors with diabetes seemingly had poorer health outcomes than cancer survivors without diabetes. This observation in the foundation for her program of research. Dr. Storey’s research is among some of the first to note that cancer survivors with diabetes had longer hospital length of stay, more neutropenic days, and infections than cancer survivors without a diabetes diagnosis. In her more recent work, Dr. Storey noted that cancer survivors with diabetes also have greater symptom burden. Currently, Dr. Storey is examining the role of blood glucose on patient reported symptoms. This is an important area of research as advances in treatment have extended the life span of cancer survivors increasing the likelihood of cancer survivors living with other comorbid conditions.
Closing Keynote
Biological mechanisms' implications in social and structural determinants of health
Speaker:

Jacquelyn Y. Taylor
Helen F. Pettit Professor of Nursing
Columbia University School of Nursing
Biography:
Dr. Jacquelyn Taylor is the Helen F. Pettit Professor of Nursing at Columbia University School of Nursing (CUSON), where she is also the Founding Executive Director of the Center for Research on People of Color (CRPC). Dr. Taylor has been a trailblazer in cardiovascular genomics research among minority populations, and diversity and inclusion efforts, having been the first black woman to earn tenure at CUSON, New York University School of Nursing, and the Yale School of Nursing. Dr. Taylor has been recognized for her contributions to the advancement of biomedical sciences, health care, and public health, having been elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019. Dr. Taylor is committed to mentoring and advancing health equity as she received the Columbia University Irving Medical Center 2021 Mentor of the Year Award and the 2021 Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research (FNINR) President’s Award for her significant work in race, culture, and disparities in healthcare. Dr. Taylor has been PI of many studies including, but not limited to, an R01 from National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)- The Intergenerational Impact of Genetic and Psychological Factors on Blood Pressure (InterGEN), a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) award from President Obama in 2017, a P20 from NINR on Precision Health in Diverse Populations in 2018, and an MPI on an R25 on Research Opportunities in Cardiovascular Diseases for Minority Undergrad and Grad Students Across the Health Sciences (RECV) in 2020, and an MPI of the TRANSFORM TL1 in 2021. In addition to leading these grants, Dr. Taylor founded the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the Yale School of Nursing and served as its inaugural Associate Dean of Diversity, and then went on to become the inaugural Endowed Chair of Health Equity and to develop and direct the Meyers Biological Laboratory at NYU before joining Columbia University.
Moderator:

Felesia Bowen
Associate Dean, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing
Biography:
Felesia Bowen is the Inaugural Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing. She began her career as an Army nurse after earning her B.S. in nursing at Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL. She earned master’s from Rutgers University, Ph.D. from Columbia University, and a DNP from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Dr. Bowen’s clinical and research expertise have improved access to care, reduced disparities for black and Latino children living with asthma. Dr. Bowen’s expertise in pediatric health and health disparities has been recognized at the municipal, state and national level. She was featured in the Future of Nursing 2020-2030 podcast and serves on the National Advisory Committees for the NIH Environmental Health Institute and the CDC SelfMade Health Network. Dr. Bowen is a decorated Veteran of the 1st Persian Gulf War and maintains a clinical practice in rural Alabama.