Celebrating Nursing Diversity

2022_BHM.pngPride Month

The Academy spotlighted the following individuals during Pride Month in June 2023:

Dalmacio Dennis Flores, PhD, ACRN, FAAN

Dr. Flores is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing and an affiliated faculty at the UPenn Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. 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. Dr. Flores’ HIV/STI prevention work has included urban and rural community education, being a national spokesperson for HIV testing campaigns, and workforce development with over 1,500 nurses across three continents.


Paula M. Neira, JD, MSN, RN, CEN, FAAN

Paula is the Program Director of LGBTQ+ Equity & Education at John Hopkins Medicine. A Naval Academy graduate and an attorney, she was a leader in the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and the change in military regulations to allow transgender service. In 2015, she made naval history by becoming the first transgender Navy veteran to have her discharge documentation updated to reflect her correct name by order of the Navy. For more than a decade, she has been recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on transgender military service. As part of her role at Johns Hopkins, she lectures nationally on the need for improved transgender cultural competence in health care.


Charles Yingling, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN

Dr. Yingling is a Clinical Professor and Associate Dean for Professional Practice at the University of Michigan School of Nursing. He is a national leader in community health who focuses on improving health and healthcare for historically marginalized populations. Dr. Yingling develops innovative nurse-led academic-clinical/community partnerships that expand access to care for and improve health in people and groups who have experienced disinvestment in their care. Examples of his work include expanding access to sexual wellness care in an LGBTQ+ community center, expanding access to gender-affirming care in a community health center and equipping the next generation of nurses to provide affirming care to LGBTQ+ people both in the US and globally.


Dallas M. Ducar, MSN, RN, NP, CNL, FAAN

Dallas Ducar serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Transhealth, a pioneering organization committed to transforming healthcare. She actively shapes health policy related to equity, ethics, and affirming care. Dallas has helped advise local, regional, and national elected leaders in best practices and policies for gender-affirming health care, including advocating for protections for providers. She is actively working to create affirming healthcare by fostering freedom, empowering patients, creating more ethical systems, and restoring a community focus back to clinical care.

2022_BHM.pngAsian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month

The Academy spotlighted the following individuals during Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, centered on Advancing Leaders Through Opportunity, in May 2023:

Mary Frances Oneha, APRN, PhD, FAAN

Mary Frances Oneha, Chief Executive Officer of Waimānalo Health Center, has dedicated her career to serving Native Hawaiian communities through community health centers. Her research interests have focused on understanding cultural perceptions regarding intimate partner violence, implementing a perinatal risk reduction intervention with Native Hawaiian women, working to prove the value of enabling services, and building the infrastructure at health centers to conduct community-based research in partnership with academic institutions and other community health centers. She is a member of Nā Limahana o Lonopūhā Native Hawaiian Health Consortium. Dr. Oneha was inducted into the Academy in 2018.


Christine Pabico, PhD, RN- NE-BC, FAAN

Christine Pabico, Director of the American Nurses Credentialing Center Pathway to Excellence, has dedicated her career to creating and maintaining positive practice environments. During the pandemic, she led the project to explore the mental well-being of Filipino nurses by distributing the “Emotions Behind the Mask” survey. The results of the survey helped identify the most pressing needs of nurses at the local and national levels. Dr. Pabico is currently the President-Elect of the Philippine Nurses Association of Metro DC. She was inducted into the Academy in 2020.


Hyochol "Brian" Ahn, PhD, MSN, MS-CTS, MS-ECE, APRN, ANP-BC, FAAN

Hyochol "Brian" Ahn, recently named Dean of the University of Arizona College of Nursing, is a Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the Florida State University College of Nursing and Founding Director of the FSU Brain Science and Symptom Management Center. He has received continuous funding as a principal investigator for studies related to biobehavioral neuroscience, health equity, and population health and wellness. He combines his expertise in nursing, medicine, and computer engineering to optimize home-based nonpharmacological intervention strategies and improve patient-centered outcomes in chronically ill and aging populations, especially among underserved populations. Dr. Ahn is a member of the Academy's Edge Runners National Advisory Council; he was inducted into the Academy in 2020.


M. Danet Lapiz Bluhm, PhD, RN, MSCI, FAAN, ANEF

M. Danet Lapiz Bluhm, Tenured Full Professor and Director of International Programs, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, conducts translational clinical research on post-traumatic stress disorder as well as education-based and community service-based diversity research to improve patient outcomes. As the founding faculty adviser of the International Nursing Students Association (INSA), Dr. Bluhm has mentored nursing students on community service-learning (CSL) activities for minority communities, including but not limited to Filipino, Vietnamese, and other Asian-American communities. Dr. Bluhm was inducted into the Academy in 2019.

2022_BHM.pngBlack History Month

The Academy spotlighted the following individuals during Black History Month, centered on Black Resistance, in February 2023:

Orlando Harris, PhD, RN, FNP, MPH, FAAN

Dr. Harris's research has focused mainly around understanding the social and cultural determinants of health for Caribbean men who have sex with men and transgender women with an emphasis on structural inequalities; social and societal context; psychosocial; and social networks. He works to create novel HIV prevention interventions that are culturally inclusive and appropriate for sexual minority populations in the Anglo-Caribbean.


Estelle Massey Osbourne, RN, FAAN

Throughout her 43 years long nursing career, Estelle Massey Osbourne worked to ensure access to education and training for black nursing students. Notably, in 1943 she was appointed to the National Nursing Council for War Service at a time when black nurses were prohibited from military service. By the end of World War II, in part due to her influence, the Cadet Nurse Corps inducted 2,000 black nurses. 


Gloria McNeal, PhD, MSN, ACNS-BC, FAAN

Dr. McNeal studies and utilizes emerging technologies in critical care settings to expand accessible care beyond the walls of the ICU. She received a $1.5 million federal grant in 2016 to launch the National University Nurse-Managed Clinic (NUNMC), an innovative model for telehealth services that has since been named an Academy Edge Runner. The NUNMC received a 4-year, $4 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration in July 2022.


Carolyn Curtis, MSN, RN, CNM, FACNM, FAAN

Carolyn Curtis is the Founder/CEO of The CARAB Company, PLLC which provides consultation and education services in the areas of maternal, neonatal, and child health, women's health, and global health. She served as a senior health advisor and nurse midwife at the United States Agency for International Development, yet she also made an incredible impact on maternal care for pregnant adolescents in Washington, DC. Her work is used by the International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians in 42 countries and by the International Confederation of Midwives in 124 countries.

Patricia E. Sloan, EdD, RN, FAAN

Noted for her expertise in the areas of public health nursing and education, Dr. Sloan held many positions throughout her distinguished career in Illinois and Virginia. While a faculty member at Hampton University, she served in the US Army Reserves for over 20 years. She was part of a talented team that started graduate nursing education programs at Hampton. Dr. Sloan was instrumental in establishing the M. Elizabeth Carnegie Nursing Archives at Hampton, the first archives in the US designed as a repository for oral histories and memorabilia on minority nurses, especially African-Americans.

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