SHU Diversity Officer Honored for Article about Racism

Maurice Nelson awarded for contribution to report about racism’s impact on women’s health

Maurice Nelson, chief diversity & inclusion officer in Sacred Heart University’s office for inclusive excellence, recently was named author of the year by The Nurse Practitioner Journal for his contributions to the article, “The impact of systemic racism on health outcomes among Black women.”

The article explores the effects of systemic racism on Black women’s health over their lifetime. It presents a case study and specific strategies for clinicians, educators and policymakers to use to mitigate and eliminate health inequities.

When Nelson worked at Yale University, he collaborated with Black female faculty members on a manuscript related to the impacts of systemic racism on Black women’s morbidity and mortality rates. When he left Yale to join SHU, he continued working with them, and the article eventually was published in The Nurse Practitioner Journal.

“This recognition is an affirmation of our work, which seeks to call attention to and dismantle systemic racism and its impacts on things like health outcomes,” said Nelson. “It helps to elevate this work and amplify the perspectives and experiences of minoritized people, particularly the brilliant Black women whom I worked with to co-author this piece.”

Nelson wrote the article with lead author Sascha James-Conterelli, former assistant professor of nursing and midwifery at the Yale School of Nursing and a certified nurse midwife in the Yale School of Nursing; Daihnia Dunkley and Jennifer T. McIntosh, Yale School of Nursing lecturers, and Angela Richard-Eaglin, Yale School of Nursing associate dean for equity and associate clinical professor.

“SHU’s mission for social justice and pursuit of inclusive excellence would be incomplete without this work that explores disproportionate health outcomes for Black women,” said Nelson. “Acknowledging and addressing systemic racism as a public health crisis is directly related to social justice and all other tenets of inclusive excellence. Therefore, this work should inform how we live out the SHU mission, particularly in health-focused disciplines.”

To read the entire article from The Nurse Practitioner Journal visit the journal’s webpage.