The Relentless School Nurse: Disseminating Facts, Dispelling Myths – Building COVID Vaccine Confidence in Communities

Maureen “Shawn” Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN is the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Nursing. As Editor-in-Chief, she’s led award-winning projects and series that have increased nurses’ awareness of important professional and social justice issues, enhanced curriculum, and provided evidence for policy change. Her work in advancing standards for nursing publications was recognized in 2016 by the International Academy of Nursing Editors with the Margaret Comerford Freda Award for Editorial Leadership and in 2017, she was awarded The Nightingale Initiative for Global Health Advocacy in Action Award for excellence in promoting nursing scholarship. Author of several book chapters and numerous articles in AJN and other journals, she’s an “author-in-residence” for Nurse Author and Editor, an online journal. Her editorials in AJN have received six Clarion awards from the Association of Women in Communications.

Barbara Glickstein, MPH, MS, RN, Principal of Barbara Glickstein Strategies, is a public health nurse and media strategist. She’s a strategist for Carolyn Jones Productions on the documentaries, The American Nurse, Defining Hope, and In Case of Emergency. Glickstein was co-PI for the Woodhull Revisited Project that found today’s nurses are used as sources in only 2% of health news stories (Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 2018). She is one of the lead authors of a qualitative study of journalists’ experiences with using nurses as sources (American Journal of Nursing, 2018). Glickstein was selected to participate in Take the Lead’s 50 Women Can Change the World in Journalism in 2019. In 2009, she was a fellow at The Women’s Media Center’s Progressive Women’s Voices Program. Glickstein produced HealthCetera, a podcast that provided evidence-based health news, analysis, and commentary. She was Director of Communications, Media Projects at the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at George Washington University School of Nursing. Glickstein serves on the Board of Project Kesher, a global Jewish feminist women’s advocacy organization. Twitter @Bglickstein

Amanda Cohn, MD currently serves as Chief Medical Officer of the National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) and Executive Secretary of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. She previously served as the Deputy Director of NCIRD’s Immunization Services Division. Dr. Cohn came to the CDC in 2004 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and joined the Meningitis and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Branch in 2006, where she focused on prevention and control meningococcal disease, both domestically and internationally. She is board certified in pediatrics and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She obtained her medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine and completed a residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center in Massachusetts.

Kristen Choi, PhD, MS, RN, is an assistant professor of nursing and public health at UCLA. In summer 2020, Dr. Choi participated in the Pfizer/BioNTech phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial. She wrote about her experience in the trial in an article in JAMA Internal Medicine, which was widely covered by mainstream national and international news media, and radio and television appearances on major outlets including CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and NBC. In her role at UCLA, Dr. Choi studies health services and policy approaches to mental health, trauma, and violence among vulnerable populations. As both a clinician and a scientist, Dr. Choi maintains a clinical practice as a registered nurse at a safety net psychiatric hospital in Downtown Los Angeles. She addresses child behavioral health from individual, family, system, and policy levels in her research and is committed to improving the mental and physical health of children and communities.

Sheldon D. Fields PhD, RN, FNP-BC, AACRN, FNAP, FAANP, FAAN is associate dean for equity and inclusion at Penn State University – College of Nursing. He is also founder and CEO of “The S.D.F Group, LLC”, which is a health innovation consultant company (www.thesdfgrp.com). He has 29 years of experience in the health sector as an educator, researcher, clinician, administrator, consultant, health policy specialist, and entrepreneur. Dr. Fields is a well-known and respected HIV/AIDS prevention research scientist with a focus on young men of color. He is a lifetime member of the National Black Nurses Association, Inc (NBNA), currently serves as the associations national first Vice President and chairs its Health Policy and Research committees. He is the founding president of the Greater New York City Chapter of NBNA. He is a fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, the National Academies of Practice, and the American Academy of Nursing. He is an Advanced AIDS Certified Registered Nurse and a Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner.

Blima Marcus, DNP RN ANP-BC OCN, is Oncology Nurse Practitioner in ambulatory care, an Adjunct Professor at Hunter College –Bellevue School of Nursing, City University of New York, and public health advocate. She has published and lectured widely on increasing vaccine confidence in providers and parents of children. She has consulted for the CDC and NYCDOH during the measles outbreak in 2018-2019 and is a trusted source for public health education. She is the founder of the EMES Initiative, a nurse-led organization dedicated to providing communities with evidence-based health information and undoing harmful misinformation. Her advocacy work has been featured in the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

Gina Miranda-Diaz, DNP, MS/MPH, APHN-BC, H-O, is a board-certified advanced public health nurse, and certified contact tracer. As a New Jersey licensed health officer, and former director of two health departments in the state, she informs the community in English and Spanish about culturally appropriate approaches to health and wellness while advocating for environmental and social justice. She has collaborated with numerous organizations, including the American Heart Association, and in March she became its spokesperson to educate Latinos in the United States and Latin America about COVID-19-related topics. For over a decade Dr. Miranda-Diaz has been a member of the executive board of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses-New Jersey Chapter, and is the past president (2016-2018). She has lectured in the academic setting about Public Health and has delivered podium presentations in the US and Puerto Rico. She has volunteered with the American Red Cross and Medical Reserve Corp and has lectured widely on public health topics. She has received numerous awards for her contributions to nursing and public health, including being named a Fellow in the New York Academy of Medicine.