RACE: Recognize, Address, Change and Educate: Strategies to be an Antiracist - in Nursing

A distinguished leader, Dr. Grant has more than 30 years of nursing experience and is an internationally recognized burn-care and fire-safety expert. He previously served as the burn outreach coordinator for the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center at University of North Carolina (UNC) Hospitals in Chapel Hill. In this role, Grant oversaw burn education for physicians, nurses, and other allied health care personnel and ran the center’s nationally acclaimed burn prevention program, which promotes safety and works to reduce burn-related injuries through public education and the legislative process. Grant also serves as adjunct faculty for the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing, where he works with undergraduate and graduate nursing students in the classroom and clinical settings.

Grant is frequently sought out for his expertise as a clinician and educator. In addition to being a prolific speaker, he has conducted numerous burn-education courses with various branches of the U.S. military in preparation for troops’ deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2002, President George W. Bush presented Grant with a Nurse of the Year Award for his work treating burn victims from the World Trade Center site. In 2013, Grant received the B.T. Fowler Lifetime Achievement Award from the North Carolina Fire and Life Safety Education Council for making a difference in preventing the devastating effects of fire and burn injuries and deaths within the state.

An active participant in professional organizations, Grant is a past chair of the National Fire Protection Association board of directors and served as second vice president of the American Burn Association board of trustees. He also holds membership in Sigma Theta Tau and Chi Eta Phi. Grant served as president of the North Carolina Nurses Association from 2009-11. In 2002, ANA honored Grant with the Honorary Nursing Practice Award for his contributions to the advancement of nursing practice through strength of character, commitment, and competence.

Grant holds a BSN degree from North Carolina Central University and MSN and PhD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2014. He is the first man to be elected to the office of president of the American Nurses Association.

SHELDON D. FIELDS, PhD, RN, CRNP, FNP-BC, AACRN, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN

1st Vice President, National Black Nurses Association (NBNA), Research Professor and Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion in the College of Nursing at Penn State University

Dr. Sheldon D. Fields is Research Professor and Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion in the College of Nursing at Penn State University. He is also founder and CEO of “The S.D.F Group, LLC”, which is a health innovation consultant company (www.thesdfgrp.com). He has 30 years of experience in the health sector as an educator, researcher, clinician, administrator, consultant, health policy specialist, and entrepreneur / business owner. Dr. Fields is a well-known and respected HIV/AIDS prevention research scientist with a significant focus on young men of color. He is an Advanced AIDS Certified Registered Nurse and a Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner. He is a lifetime member of the National Black Nurses Association, Inc., (NBNA) and currently serves as the organization’s national 1st Vice President (2020 – 2022). He was the first ever male Registered Nurse selected for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellowship Program in which he served as a policy adviser to then Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) on the Senate HELP committee during the historic healthcare reform debates and passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Dr. Fields is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, and the National Academies of Practice. He has held academic and administrative positions at Binghamton University, University of Rochester, Florida International University, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, New York Institute of Technology, and Long Island University-Brooklyn. Dr. Fields received his Ph.D., in Nursing Science from the University of Pennsylvania, his M.S., in Family Nursing and B.S., in Nursing from Binghamton University. He completed post-doctoral studies at the University of California San Francisco.

Donte Newsom, DNP, FNP-BC

West Virginia Nurses Association Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee (DEI), FNP   

Dr. Newsom is a Family Nurse Practitioner working in interventional radiology at Allegany Imaging, P.C and UPMC Western Maryland. He is also an adjunct instructor for the Family Nurse Practitioner program at Simmons University.  Dr. Newsom earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science in Nursing and a Doctor of Nursing Practice from West Virginia University.

A leader in human and civil rights in West Virginia, Dr. Newsom pursued his Doctor of Nursing Practice with the goal of opening pathways to improve nursing and healthcare practice. Newsom aspires to influence practice change and shape how care is delivered in the future.

Donte currently serves as a board member with Fairness West Virginia, the statewide human/civil rights organization devoted to equal rights for all LGBTQ+ West Virginians.  He also serves as a medical officer for Mountaineer Boys State, a board member for The Connecting Link, and on the WVNA Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee (DEI). 

Donte is a Fairmont, West Virginia native and spent most of his life in North Central WV. He currently lives in Mineral County.

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Moderator, Sandra L. Cotton, DNP, APRN, FNAP

WVNA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee Member

 

Dr. Sandra “Sam” Cotton is a Clinical Associate Professor at West Virginia University School of Nursing. She earned an Associate degree from Hocking College (1979), a Bachelor of Science (1984) and a Doctorate of Nursing Practice (2012) degrees from WVU, and a MS from the University of Maryland (1995). For many years, Sam was responsible for leading faculty practice, designed to support WVU’s research, teaching, and service missions. As an adult NP, she has seen patients and precepted students in a university internal medicine practice and a local free clinic for nearly 25 years. She is now focusing on more health policy, prevention, and wellness. Since Jan 2019 Dr. Cotton has been pursuing a post graduate certificate in Veterans and Military Health, through the University of Colorado, expected date of completion, December 2020!

A retired Lieutenant Colonel, Chief Nurse, and examiner flight nurse with the West Virginia Air National Guard, Sam is a 34+ year veteran of the United States Air Force; served in Gulf Wars I and II, including two tours with the 379th and 332nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadrons in Balad, Iraq, as a Commander and Senior Flight Nurse, flying and caring for wounded troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Germany.

In 2007 she became a distinguished practitioner in the National Academy of Practice; has served as a nurse consultant and tireless advocate for APNs in West Virginia, and nationally, as Helene Fuld Academic Leadership and Penn Macy Academic Nursing Practice Fellows. In 2012, she received the DNP student Excellence and Alumni Leadership awards. In 2014, Dr. Cotton was named the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, Nurse Practitioner Clinical Excellence Award of the Year for the state of West Virginia. A member of American Nurses Association since 1979, she is a past state vice-president and has chaired the APN Council and state Nurses PAC. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Cotton initially became a member, because our “nursing faculty said so!” Through WVNA, District 8, while living in Charleston in the early ‘80s. It was during this time the real value of belonging to ANA/WVNA became apparent, as lobbying for a real life issue nurses faced at the bedside, “end of life issues that had yet to catch up with technology”. “It seemed as if we were caring for mere ‘shells’ of a once vibrant human beings, who now were kept artificially ‘alive’ while waiting for nature to take its course”. However, nature was no longer in charge. She describes the days of “slow codes, CPR but no meds, meds but no CPR, CPR but no intubation, or intubation but no CPR began. It was terrible, to see a family torn by the hope of technology, knowing the personal belief system that their loved one would not want any of these tubes and wires connected to them, yet helpless to make it different. Lobbying for one of the first versions of the WV Natural Death Act was empowering. My patients may no longer have their voice, but I could use my voice to make a change. And so it has been ever since...”  Cotton also states she would never miss an election, “especially seeing people in other countries die for the right to vote”.