Equity in Action Series | The Contemporary Landscape of Racism in Nursing: Where Do We Go from Here?

Kenya V. Beard, EdD, AGACNP, ANEF, FAAN, is the Inaugural Dean for the School of Nursing at Mercy College. She is a 2012 Macy Faculty Scholar who recently co-created and led the nation’s first Nurse Faculty Fellow’s program to strengthen the preparedness of nurses transitioning from the role of clinician to educator. As a past-Senior Fellow at the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement, she co-produced health care disparity segments for HealthCetera, on WBAI for an audience of over 400,000 listeners. Recognizing that a diverse workforce could improve healthcare outcomes, she led efforts to advance the needle on diversity, inclusion, and health equity for over three decades. Dr. Beard is a national speaker who is driven by a scientific passion for providing meaningful ways to eliminate health care disparities through a diverse, well-prepared workforce. Many have benefitted from her webinars, blogs, workshops, research, and publications that speak to the complexities of diversity and emphasize critical ways to advance health equity. Her workshop, Leading in a Race-Conscious Society, is supported by the Harvard Macy Institute’s Program for Educators in the Health Professions. As a proponent for elevating equity in academia, she led the New York State Action Coalition in constructing the 2014 Workforce Diversity Toolkit for New York. In 2020, she served as a reviewer for the National Academy of Medicine's Future of Nursing 2020-2030 report. Her work has earned her numerous awards and honors. Dr. Beard is currently a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, Academy of Nursing Education and American Academy of Nursing. She serves on the American Academy of Nursing’s Institute for Nursing Leadership and the editorial board for the American Journal of Nursing. She recently co-authored a National Academy of Medicine Perspectives commentary entitled "Dismantling Systemic Racism and Advancing Health Equity throughout Research". Dr. Beard is a Commissioner for the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing and the past Chairperson for the New York State Board of Nursing.