Speakers

Daphne Delgado 
Vice President
Health Equity 

Daphne Delgado is Vice President of Health Equity at UsAgainstAlzheimer’s (UsA2), where she works to promote brain health equity through the organization's priorities, initiatives and programmatic activities. Additionally, she leads the Center for Brain Health Equity's work, including the Brain Health Equity Nurse Fellowship and UsA2's partnership with the CDC. Daphne has over a decade of experience in government relations, coalition building, and public health and chronic disease prevention policy, using her experience to advocate on behalf of patients, caregivers, and community-based organizations. Prior to joining UsA2, Daphne worked at Trust for America's Health, YMCA of the USA, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, and served as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Health Fellow for U.S. Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard. She was named as an Aspen Ideas Health Fellow in 2022. Daphne has a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology, a minor in Biology from Duke University and a Master of Public Health in Health Behavior from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She lives in Nashville.

Angela E. Dykes, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC 

Angela E. Dykes is President of Essential Health & Wellness and Immediate Past President of the South Carolina Nurses Association. A board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner with more than 30 years of healthcare experience, she specializes in primary care, prevention, wellness, and patient education, with a focus on improving health outcomes in underserved communities throughout North Augusta and surrounding areas.  

Dr. Dykes is passionate about advancing brain health and healthy aging through education, early intervention, and risk reduction. She is a 2025 alum of t he UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Brain Health Fellowship, supported by the National Black Nurses Association and the National Hispanic Nurses Association, and works to educate communities and healthcare professionals about dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and strategies to reduce cognitive decline risk factors.

Nora Hernandez Pupo, PhD, RN, COI, TNCC, WCSI
Caritas Coach® & Caritas Leader®

Dr. Nora Hernandez Pupo is a nurse educator and leader with over 25 years of clinical experience and more than a decade in academic leadership. She is currently a faculty member at Nevada State University, where she contributes to nursing education and student development.

Dr. Pupo has held a range of clinical roles across multiple hospital settings and units, bringing a breadth of real-world experience into her academic work. Prior to joining Nevada State University in 2022, she served for seven years at Barry University as an Assistant Professor and Program Director for the undergraduate BSN program. Dr. Pupo has been actively involved with the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) for over 12 years at both the local and national levels. She was selected as a 2025 Brain Health Equity Nurse Fellow.

Adriana Perez, PhD, CRNP, ANP-BC, FAAN, FGSA,  
Assistant Professor, UPenn School of Nursing   
Senior Fellow, UPenn Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics

Dr. Adriana Perez teaches Leadership Development in Health Care (NURS748) in the DNP program and has been acknowledged by Penn Nursing’s Graduate Student Organization with the Outstanding Nurse Educator Award. She has developed Social Justice sessions for ABSN students to foster dialogue and activate actions that address structural racism and advance health equity as students prepare to become nurses in today’s world. She is energized by Penn Nursing st udents and enjoys teaching, mentoring, and learning from them.

Speakers

Patricia Morton, PhD, RN, ACNP-BC, FAAN
Editor of the Journal of Professional Nursing
Dean Emeritus
University of Utah

Patricia Gonce Morton is Dean Emeritus, University of Utah College of Nursing. She served as Dean, Professor and held the Louis Peery Endowed Presidential Chair at the University of Utah College of Nursing. Prior to her deanship at the University of Utah, Dr. Morton served in various administrative positions at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. An educator and scholar who is known for her work in critical care nursing and nursing education, Dr. Morton has authored multiple editions of three textbooks, numerous book chapters, and over 60 journal articles. She has served on the editorial board of eight nursing journals and for seven years was the editor of the journal AACN Clinical Issues: Advanced Practice in Acute and Critical Care sponsored by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Currently, Dr. Morton has been the editor of the Journal of Professional Nursing sponsored by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing since 2013. Dr. Morton is a certified acute care nurse practitioner. In recognition of her contributions to nursing and healthcare, Dr. Morton was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 1999.

Speakers

Gregory Knapik, PhD, DNP, MA, PMHCNSBC, ANP-BC
Associate Professor of Nursing
Notre Dame College

Dr. Gregory Knapik has been an RN since 1984 working in a variety of settings, mostly primary care and psych/mental health in Cleveland and Akron, in northeast Ohio. He has his doctorates in nursing (DNP, PhD), and has ANCC certifications as a CNS in psych/mental health and ANP (Adult Nurse Practitioner). Gregory has worked as an advanced practice nurse in primary care and/or mental health since 1998 along with teaching either FT or PT. He helped operate an academic and urban-based free healthcare clinic, managed by advanced practice nurses. Gregory most recently worked (clinically-based) in home health care managing pts in their home, group home, assisted living, and other community-based facilities. Gregory also benefits from the privilege of having gone on 6 health-related mission trips to Central America.

He tries to incorporate the "holistic" approach of considering the body, mind, and spirit in each patient encounter, and treat or care for the person, not the disease or disorder. He has also taught for about 12 years in several places and capacities in the discipline of nursing. He values the experience, knowledge, and wisdom of the students he has in class, and appreciate comments, anecdotes, and experiences shared in the lived experience of nursing. He values the importance of research and ongoing evidence-based practice, along with adaptability and “thinking outside the box.”

Sr. Anne Victory, MSN, RN
Leadership Team Member
Sisters of the Humility of Mary

Sr. Anne Victory is currently serving as a member of the Leadership Team of the Sisters of the Humility of Mary. She served as Director of Education for the Collaborative to End Human Trafficking, Cleveland, OH from 2010-2021 and is now a volunteer for the organization. A nurse by profession, she served for 32 years as a clinician, educator, and administrator in nursi ng and as Vice President for Mission and Director of Staff Education at St. Joseph Hospital, Lorain, OH, (now named Mercy Health and part of the Bon Secours Mercy Health System). Sr. Anne is one of the founding members of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking (formerly US Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking) and past president of the board. She has given presentations to a wide variety of audiences on the issue of human trafficking. One of the lenses through which Anne views human trafficking is as a public health issue--one that requires a collaborative, trauma-based approach involving multiple systems and service providers. She holds a BSN from St. John College, Cleveland, and a MS in Nursing from Ohio State University.

Kathleen Hackett, MSN, RN, SANE-P
Forensic Program Coordinator
UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital

Kathleen Hackett has been a nurse for over 30 years with 20 years of emergency room experience, and is certified through the International Association of Forensic Nurses as a pediatric sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE-P). Kathleen is currently the Pediatric Forensic Program Coordinator for University Hospitals, Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital since its launch in 2010, in Cleveland, OH. Kathleen earned her Master of Science in Nursing (Forensic Track) at Cleveland State University in 2017. Kathleen provides ongoing education within her medical facility, and area undergraduate and graduate programs on such topics as sexual abuse/assault, human trafficking, non-fatal strangulation, and trauma-informed care, for medical students, physicians, and nurses. Kathleen also collaborates with community partners to provide better-quality care for pediatric victims of crime.

Speakers

Margaret P. Moss, PhD, JD, RN, FAAN
Professor and Associate Dean for Nursing and Health Policy
Katherine R. & C. Walton Lillehei Chair in Nursing Leadership
University of Minnesota School of Nursing

Dr. Margaret Moss is an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation in North Dakota. She is the first and only American Indian to hold both Nursing and Juris Doctorates. She has been a nurse for 35 years and an academic for 24 years across 4 universities including the University of Minnesota (twice) where she has returned as Professor in Nursing and Associate Dean of Nursing and Health Policy, Yale University, SUNY Buffalo and the University of British Columbia (UBC). Just prior she was at UBC 2018-2023, as a Professor, School of Nursing, Interim Associate Vice President Equity & Inclusion for the University, and Director of the UBC First Nations House of Learning, a strategic Indigenous leadership position under the Provost. She co-led the development and launch of the UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan (2020) one of the only comprehensive plans in No. America. Dr. Moss was named to the inaugural Forbes 50 over 50 Impact List, 2021. She was elected to the American Academy of Nursing’s Board 2021 and has been elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) (2022). She sits on a Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. She has contributed to 2 NAM consensus studies- Federal Policy to Advance Racial, Ethnic, and Tribal Health Equity (2022), and currently The Use of Race and Ethnicity in Biomedical Research. Dr. Moss wrote an award-winning text, American Indian Health and Nursing (2015) followed by Health Equity and Nursing (2020). In other experiences, Dr. Moss was a RWJF Health Policy Fellow and staffed the Senate Special Committee on Aging. She was a Fulbright Research Chair at McGill University on Indigenous Life Across the North American Context. She is asked to speak often on Indigenous, health, aging, diversity and policy issues with academics, health professionals and other groups nationally and internationally.