The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses is pleased to announce the 2023 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Leadership Award recipient. The award recognizes an AWHONN member who has exhibited strong leadership and commitment in advancing and advocating evidence-based protocols, research, or practices to combat maternal or newborn health outcome disparities to underserved or underrepresented populations in the US.
The 2023 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Leadership Award is presented to Rachelle Nurse, PhD, RN, WHNP-BC.
Dr. Nurse has an unwavering pursuit to advance underrepresented people in the nursing profession and in business. Now retired from faculty, while at Texas Women’s University, Nurse was driven to diversify the nursing workforce by finding avenues to increase the number of nursing students from underrepresented communities. She led the development of a partnership between TWU, Texas Children’s Hospital, and Staff Stafford Municipal School district, and developed summer camps for underrepresented middle school students to be introduced to nursing with a path to nursing school.
Currently, Nurse assists with creating opportunities to introduce underrepresented individuals to business ownership. She collaborates with business owners and Chamber of Commerce entities in Buffalo, NY, to advance minority women in business. Nurse is the inaugural chair of the AWHONN Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and current chairperson. She also developed and led the TWU DEI committee, and as a board member of Elmwood Franklin School she is the DEI advisor and works with the school to evaluate and enhance their DEI efforts.
Nurse is committed to educating nurses to step out of their comfort zone to ensure their organizations are diversified, and their healthcare teams work to exemplify compassion and empathy to drive positive health outcomes for all She is committed to leveraging every avenue to educate nurses and business owners about diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and justice.
The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Leadership Award is sponsored by Kenvue and their iconic brands Johnson’s® and Aveeno Baby® and will be presented at the 2023 AWHONN Annual Convention in New Orleans in June.
About AWHONN
The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit membership organization. Our mission is to empower and support nurses caring for women, newborns, and their families through research, education, and advocacy. Learn more about us at awhonn.org.
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