The Diversity and Inclusion Committee promotes increased diversity and inclusion in the Nurse Anesthesia program; recommends strategies to both recruit, and retain, students that contribute to the diversity of the CRNA profession. Members include students, faculty, and alumni.
Faculty Members
Dr. Lori Anderson, DNP, CRNA, APRN
Associate Professor, Chair & Program Director
Dr. Jennifer Greenwood, CRNA, PhD
Associate Professor
Dr. Pamela Chambers, DNP, EJD, MSN, CRNA, APRN
Assistant Professor
Alumni Member
Ranya Elkhatib, DNP, CRNA
Team 22 Members
Terrell Foster, SRNA, Team 2022
Julian Armstrong, SRNA, Team 2022
Jeremy Doncouse, SRNA, Team 2022
Eduardo Ornelas, SRNA, Team 2022
Floyd Holland, SRNA, Team 2022
Team 23 Members
- Shontanay Anders
- Jesse Berndt
- Corinne Knator
- Wali Khan
- Marble Simbi-Mujeye
ACTIVITIES THEY’VE BEEN DOING
- Reviewed and provided input into the Department of Nurse Anesthesia Strategic Plan for Diversity & Inclusion
- Reviewed the results of the Student Mistreatment survey, and mechanisms used by students to report mistreatment
- Discussion of opportunities to recruit more diverse applicants to the program
Department Support of D&I
- Curriculum evaluation by all course directors to incorporate more diverse research articles, when possible, to support course content
- Initiated a Journal club related to topics on healthcare disparities are conducted every 2-3 months.
Community Involvement
- Dr. Tierney has been involved with outreach events locally by giving presentations to several undergraduate nursing programs in diverse communities about the field of nurse anesthesia. Topics include how to get into nursing and anesthesia school, and about our program specifically. Presentations were given to students in Joliet and Aurora, IL.
- Dr. Greenwood has provided lectures to local HS students to promote awareness of the profession and encourage students to pursue nursing and possibly a career in anesthesia.
Doctoral Project Work That Supports Diversity
- Several projects are underway that delve into different aspects of diversity and inclusion in nurse anesthesia. One DNP project aims to quantify the diversity demographics of nurse anesthesia residents nationwide, and benchmark them against population data, to determine how well the matriculated student body represents our national demographics. In addition to race and ethnicity, this project is also interested in determining the average age of nurse anesthesia residents, how many of them have children, and how many of them are non-native english speakers. Understanding these dynamics will allow programs to build support measures that specifically meet the needs of their diverse residents. Currently the survey is deployed and we will be assembling data for release in 2022.
- Another project currently underway is to determine the feasibility of hosting a Nurse Anesthesia program a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). Currently there are no nurse anesthesia training programs located within any Historically Black College or University (HBCU). Understanding the barriers to having a program in these settings is expected to inform university administrators as they consider expanding their academic programs to meet the expanding needs of healthcare in America, particularly in the shortage area of anesthesia.
- A third project group from Team 22 has created a DNP project aimed at realigning the student peer mentoring program in a way that supports student needs. The program entails a needs assessment, characteristic matching, and formal training of future mentors.
