Advancing Health Equity during COVID-19 Pandemic

Dr. Alejandro is the Interim Assistant Director for the ADN and RN-to-BSN Programs and Assistant Professor at Mount St. Mary’s University - Los Angeles. Jose currently serves as a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve and will complete his Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program in June.

As a bilingual, Hispanic male, Dr. Alejandro has first-hand experience of the need to improve diversity in the nursing profession. He has devoted his professional career to being a servant leader with a passion to develop strategies and pathways that improve diversity in nursing pedagogy and evidenced-based clinical and pedagogical practice. He has extensive experience in working and collaborating with at-risk populations.

In addition to Sigma Treasurer (2019-2023), he is active in other professional associations which include serving as Immediate Past President (2020-2021) of the Case Management Society of America (CMSA), Board Member (2019-2021) for the American Academy of Nursing and (appointed) American Association of Men in Nursing (AAMN). Dr. Alejandro also served as the 15th President (2012-2014) of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses.

He was awarded the CMSA’s Case Manager of the Year in 2015 and the AAMN Luther Christman Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021. Dr. Alejandro is a Sigma and Virginia Henderson Fellow of Sigma; Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing; and Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Dr. Lovoria B. Williams is an associate professor in the College of Nursing and Graduate Studies. She is the Director of the Community Health Advocacy iNterventions Generating Equity (CHANGE) Team and the Assistant Director for Cancer Health Equity at the NCI-designated Markey Cancer Center where she holds the endowed Research Professorship in Cancer Health Equity. Dr. Williams received her undergraduate degrees in nursing from Union University and the Medical College of Georgia. She earned a Master’s of Nursing [Family Nurse Practitioner] from Georgia Southern University and a PhD in Nursing with Distinction from Georgia Regents University. Her research aims to advance health equity among racial/ethnic minority and medically underserved populations through community engaged research methods to affect improved diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer outcomes. She is an NIH-funded nurse scientist who is nationally-recognized for developing culturally-adapted interventions for implementation by community health workers in church settings. A strong advocate for diversity, inclusivity and equity, Dr. Williams served the Lexington Mayor as Co-Chair of the Health Disparities Subcommittee on the Mayor’s Commission on Racial Justice & Equality. She also serves on the University of Kentucky UNITed in Racial Equity (UNITE) Research Priority Area Internal Advisory Board and on the Kentucky Nurses Action Coalition (KNAC) External Advisory Committee. She is a member of multiple professional organizations such as the American Nurses Association, the Southern Nursing Research Society where she serves on the Board of Directors and she is President of the Lexington KY Chapter of the National Black Nurses Association.

Dr. Regina S. Eddie is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at Northern Arizona University. She is an enrolled tribal member of the Diné (Navajo) Nation of Arizona. Dr. Eddie received her PhD from the University of New Mexico and is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nursing and Health Policy Collaborative fellow. Her nursing background and experience has primarily been in areas of community heath and public health nursing in rural, underserved American Indian communities. As a Diné nurse researcher, Dr. Eddie’s research focuses on American Indian health disparities, school health and wellness policies and practices, and tribal health policy research.

As an educator, she is committed to increasing recruitment and retention of Native American youth into health careers. Dr. Eddie coordinates a ‘Health Profession’ campus visit day for Native American youth from rural remote reservation schools with the goal to increase preparation and interest among Native American youth in the health professions. She also facilitates public health nursing practicums in AI reservation communities for hands-on experiences in working with AI populations, while helping to serve the health needs of rural medically underserved areas, particularly in Navajo communities.