Health Equity Reimagined
Duke University School of Nursing
is Driving Advances in Health Equity and Social Justice
The United States faces an increasing burden of disease caused by health inequities -
systematic, unfair, and avoidable differences between population segments.
Focused on Solutions in Action
We are committed to ending health inequities through transformative excellence
in Education, Clinical Practice, and Nursing Science.
NEWS: Associate Professor Aims to Protect Health Care Workers from Harmful Drug Exposure
Each year, more than 8 million health care workers in the U.S. come into contact with antineoplastic drugs, such as chemotherapy, in shipping/receiving, transportation, compounding, administration, and less well considered sources like patients’ body fluids, including urine, feces, vomit and sweat. That exposure can cause a host of acute and chronic health problems for health care workers, including nausea, vomiting, hair loss, skin rashes, adverse reproductive outcomes, and increased risk for therapy associated cancers.
SPOTLIGHT: Stephanie Ibemere
DUSON Assistant Professor works to combat Sickle Cell Disease Across the Globe
Student Engagement
Learn about how our very own School of Nursing Students are making a difference.
Meet Our Newest Health Equity Faculty Leaders
We are rapidly expanding our faculty with intense expertise in addressing the
harmful social determinants of health, dedicated to reducing health inequities.
Faculty Impact
Our faculty are experts in the creation of interventions that change lives.
We invite you to learn more about the commitment of Duke faculty to Health Equity and Social Justice.
Marissa Abram
PhD, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP, FIAAN
Dr. Abram's research interests broadly focus on the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders including examining the role of nursing, the process of recovery, and factors related to the initiation and maintenance of evidence-based treatments.
Donna Biederman
DrPH, MN, RN, CPH, FAAN
Dr. Biederman's current research includes: Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention-Mobile Health Training Program (NEPQR-MHTP); Improving Access to Care for Homeless Individuals.
Michael Cary
PhD, RN, FAAN
Dr. Cary is dually trained as a health services researcher and applied data scientist, Dr. Cary uses AI and machine learning to study health disparities related to aging and develop strategies to advance health equity and improve healthcare delivery to older adults in diverse populations. His research has been supported by the National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Nursing
Sean Convoy
DNP, PMHNP-BC
Dr. Convy leads the Psychiatric - Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program. He is an expert in advanced practice psychiatric - mental health nursing, cognitive therapy, mental illness prevention, and caregiver stress.
Nancy Crego
PhD, RN, CCRN, CHSE
Dr. Crego is a certified pediatric critical care nurse whose clinical experiences include psychiatric nursing, adult trauma, adult critical care, pediatric intensive care, pediatric critical care transport, and pediatric cardiac intensive care. Dr. Crego earned her BSN and her MSN in Nursing Administration at Barry University (Miami, FL), and she earned her PhD in Nursing at the University of Virginia.
Anne L. Derouin
DNP, RN, CPNP, FAANP
Dr. provides adolescent primary care services at Community and School-based Health Centers affiliated with Duke’s Department of Community and Family Medicine for more than two decades. Derouin also serves on the state and national boards of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP), is considered an adolescent clinical expert, serving on Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) and as the co-chair for the Adolescent Special Interest Group of NAPNAP, participating in pediatric, school-based health and advanced nursing practice advocacy efforts at state and federal levels.
Sharron Docherty
PhD, PNP, FAAN
Dr. Docherty’s research is aimed at improving outcomes for children, adolescents, young adults and families undergoing treatment for life-limiting and chronic conditions. She studies how to improve care models, symptom management, and decision making from diagnosis through end of life.
Irene Felsman
DNP, MPH, RN, C-GH
Dr. Felsman's current research includes: Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention-Mobile Health Training Program (NEPQR-MHTP); Increasing Health Insurance Enrollment for the Comunidad Latina; SER Hispano: Salud/Health, Estres/Stress, and Resiliencia/Resilience Among Young Adult Hispanics Immigrants in the U.S.
Derrick Glymph
PhD, DNAP, CRNA, APRN, COL, USAR, FAANA, FAAN
Dr. Glymph is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist and previously served as Chair of the Department of Nurse Anesthetist Practice at Florida International University. He was a governor-appointed member of the Florida Board of Nursing for six years.
Rosa Gonzalez-Guarda
PhD, MPH, RN, CPH, FAAN
Dr. Gonzalez-Guarda's research describes the intersection of intimate partner violence, substance abuse, HIV and mental health among Latinos in the U.S. and the development of multi-level interventions to address these.
Bradi B. Granger
PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN
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 pragmatic tools that change the way nurses learn about, apply, and conduct nursing science. She has developed an innovative model for clinical inquiry and research in the hospital setting, which has been adopted in clinical settings across the U.S. and abroad.
Ernest J. Grant
PhD, RN, FAAN
Dr. Grant is the immediate past president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), the nation's largest nurse's organization representing the interests of 4.3 million registered nurses. Dr. Grant brings expertise as a global leader, advocate and commitment to diversity in the nursing workforce.
Stephanie Ibemere
PhD, RN
Dr. Ibemere's program of research aims to increase access to high quality care and improved health outcomes for underserved adults with chronic diseases by developing community and culture-driven interventions which increase health equity while building health system and provider capacity for chronic disease management.
Ragan Johnson
DNP, MSN, APRN-BC
Ragan Johnson, DNP, FNP-BC, CNE, is an associate clinical professor at Duke University School of Nursing. Dr. Johnson earned a DNP with a public health concentration in 2012 and a MS in Nursing in 2005, both from The University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN. She received her BS in nursing from Tennessee State University in 2001.
Mariam Kayle
PhD, RN, CCNS
Dr. Kayle’s program of research aims to improve health outcomes among people with childhood-onset complex chronic conditions, with a focus on sickle cell disease (SCD). In partnership with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, she co-leads the North Carolina Sickle Cell Data Collection Program (NC SCDC).
Brandon Knettel
PhD
Dr. Knettel's areas of specialization are global mental health and health behavior, with a focus on care engagement, nurse-led models of care, stigma reduction, and mental health support for people living with HIV.
Mitchell Knisely
PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, PMGT-BC
Dr. Knisely’s research focuses on the application of precision health approaches to understand and ameliorate pain and promote equitable pain care in individuals with sickle cell disease and other chronic pain conditions.
Jamison Lord
DNP, MSN, RNC, PMHNP-BC
Dr. Lord, Assistant Clinical Professor in the School of Nursing · 2021 - Present
School of Nursing.
Eleanor S. McConnell
PhD, MSN, RN, GCNS, BC
Dr. McConnell's program of research focuses on factors that influence functional decline in very frail older adults. She has been funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research and the Department of Veterans Affairs to conduct a series of studies designed to identify modifiable risk factors for worsening self-care disability in long-stay nursing home residents with chronic cognitive impairment.
Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler
PhD, MSN, BSN, CNM, CNE
Dr. McMillian-Bohler is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Duke University School of Nursing, she teaches Health Promotion and Perinatal Nursing in the pre-professional and Master’s Degree programs. Passionate about teaching and helping others achieve excellence in teaching, Jacqui’s program of research aims to identify how master teachers create powerful learning experiences for students.
Marta Mulawa
PhD, MHS
Dr. Mulawa’s research focuses on improving population health by examining and addressing social and behavioral determinants of HIV treatment and prevention outcomes in global settings. To inform the development of these HIV interventions, her research also aims to improve our understanding of how social networks influence various HIV-related behaviors.
Devon Noonan
PhD, MPH, FNP-BC
Dr. Noonan’s research is focused on using community-engaged approaches to develop innovative health behavior change interventions, including digital interventions, with the goal of reducing risk for chronic diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease.
B. Iris Padilla
PhD, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, FAANP
Dr. Padilla's professional nursing experience includes trauma-critical care, emergency room, and primary care. Dr. Padilla is a family nurse practitioner and has provided primary care to the under-served population for over 16 years. She has led the diabetes clinic in Nashville and is currently the diabetes consultant at a federally qualify health center in Durham.
Tonia Poteat
PhD, MPH, PA_C
Dr. Poteat has successfully combined her practice, educational and research expertise to address social determinants of health and improve health inequities. Her research focuses on the intersectional and structural stigma that drives LGBTQ health disparities.
Karin Reuter-Rice
PhD, CPNP-AC, FCCM, FAAN
Dr. Reuter-Rice commitment to the care of critically ill and injured children and their families has led Dr. Reuter-Rice to focus her research in the area of trauma and head injury. With a collaborative research team approach and NIH-NINR and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation support, Dr. Reuter-Rice examines the relationship between genetic variations, cerebral vasospasm and neurocognitive/functional outcomes in pediatric admitted to hospital with a traumatic brain injury. She has also developed a specimen biorepository.
Ryan Shaw
PhD, RN
Dr. Shaw leads teams that discover how to integrate patient generated health data and emerging technologies into novel care delivery models for patients with complex chronic illnesses. This includes data from wearables, sensors and devices that monitor and augment patient care and interface with electronic health records (EHRs).
Susan G. Silva
PhD
Dr. Silva is a mental health researcher and biostatistician applying multi-level analytic models to study the impact of social drivers. Dr. Silva mentors students and teaches courses in General Linear Models, Generalized Linear Mixed Models, Mediator and Moderator Analyses, and Longitudinal Data Analysis.
Sophia K. Smith
PhD, MSW
Dr. Smith's research explores ways to improve the quality of cancer care including post-treatment survivorship and palliative care with a primary focus on leveraging technology in delivering behavioral health interventions to the community. She is leading efforts to integrate clinical cancer care and research in building the scientific evidence that informs evidence-based practice through her current and past memberships.
Allison Stafford
PhD, RN
Dr. Stafford's program of research is focused on promoting mental health equity among Latinx young people. She obtained a B.S. in Nursing and a Ph.D. in Nursing Science from Indiana University. As a predoctoral fellow, she completed fellowship programs in in Behavioral Nursing Research and Leadership and Education in Adolescent Health.
Paula J. Tanabe
PhD, MSN, MPH, RN, FAEN, FAAN
Dr. Tanabe's program of research focuses on improving systems of healthcare and patient outcomes for persons with sickle cell disease, a primarily minority and under-served population. Dr. Tanabe has received funding from the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, the National Institute of Heart, Lung, and Blood, National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Institute of Nursing Research.
AnnMarie Walton
PhD, RN, MPH, OCN, CHES, FAAN
Dr. Walton's program of research centers on understanding and minimizing occupational exposures to carcinogens. Her dissertation work combined her educational preparation and over ten years of clinical experience caring for patients with acute leukemia to examine the pesticide protective behaviors of Latino migrant and seasonal farmworkers.
Tracey Yap
PhD, RN, CNE, WCC, FGSA, FAAN
Dr. Yap's overarching goal of research is to improve the quality of care delivered by nursing staff, regardless of setting, and she aims to advance nursing’s ability to improve health care outcomes by increasing the mobility/movement of individuals through nursing’s use of cueing approaches, such as reminder messages and behavioral alerts.
Hanzhang Xu
PhD, RN
Dr. Xu is a geriatric nurse scientist and health services researcher whose program of research falls under two themes: addressing health inequities in cognitive aging and dementia care delivery among older adults from a global perspective and integrating social determinants of health in cardiovascular outcomes research.
Schenita Randolph
PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
Dr. Randolph is advancing the nursing science by addressing the root causes of sexual health inequities for Black male adolescents and women. Her work has received national attention in the popular media and has been supported by public and private funders.
Michael Relf
PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, AACRN, ANEF, CNE, FAAN
Dr. Relf's research focuses on the psychosocial aspects of HIV using mixed-methods particularly focusing on intimate partner violence; HIV-related stigma, intersectional stigma, and experiences with everyday discrimination among persons living with HIV; and interventions to promote engagement in HIV-oriented primary medical care and disclosure.