I am very pleased to announce that my office and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion are partnering to begin developing a Racial Justice Action Plan for DUSON. This effort dovetails with President Price’s email on June 17, 2020, when he called for institutional transformation and our commitment to anti-racism actions that are embedded within the five core aspects of Duke’s strategic framework, Toward our Second Century. In addition, this effort supports the coordinated effort by Chancellor Washington to develop a preliminary implementation proposal from Duke Health in September 2020.

DUSON has formed a Racial Justice Task Force comprised of members representing our community. The group will examine our greatest challenges impacting all areas of the school. The Task Force will form work groups that will define specific and measurable transformative racial justice activities to be implemented at DUSON. This effort will build on the priorities of the Office of Diversity & Inclusion and DUSON’s 2016-2021 Strategic Plan.

Task force members will begin their work this week using the Design Thinking method of problem solving. The task force will seek additional participation in working groups, and recommendations will be carefully vetted within DUSON.

I want to personally thank the following members of our community who have volunteered to assist in developing this important initiative.

Racial Justice Task Force (List in alphabetical order)

• Chip Bailey, associate professor

• Lacrecia Bell, clinical nurse educator

• Dean Marion E. Broome

• Corey Brown, staff assistant

• Sofia Mendoza Bruno, ABSN student

• Ebony Burns, clinical research coordinator

• Brigit Carter, associate dean of diversity and inclusion 

• Michael Cary, associate professor

• Nicole Caviness-Ashe, PhD student

• Vivian Nwahiri-Chimezie, DNP student

• Nancy Crego, assistant professor

• Maralis Mercado Emerson, clinical research coordinator

• Christian Falyar, assistant professor

• Nicole Forlan, MSN student

• Angie Keith, director of finance and HR

• Isaac Lipkus, professor

• Najla McClain, ABSN program coordinator

• Heather Mountz, D-CHIPP program coordinator 

• Molly Petri, ABSN student

• Monica Russell, program director for Office of Diversity & Inclusion

• Valerie Sabol, professor

• Rosa Solorzano, consulting associate

• Dori Steinberg, associate professor

• Hideyo Tsumura, PhD student

• Diane Uzarski, chief of staff

• Tedrick Vernon, DNP '18

• Qing Yang, assistant professor

As I have shared with you many times over the past few months, the solutions to the challenges we face as a society will not be identified easily. However I am very grateful and optimistic that together we will work towards creating understanding, building trust and moving forward as a community.

Marion E. Broome, PhD, RN, FAAN
Dean and Vice-Chancellor for Nursing Affairs, School of Nursing, Duke University
Associate Vice-President for Academic Nursing, Duke University Health System