The Elaine Marieb College of Nursing at UMass Amherst is hosting a virtual lecture on "Advancing Disability Justice: Building Equity and Belonging for All".
Anna Maria Valdez, PhD, RN, CEN, CNE, CFRN, FAEN, FAADN, professor of nursing at Sonoma State University, is a disabled nurse with more than 30 years of experience in clinical practice and nursing education. She is passionate about health equity, disability justice, and eradicating racism and other forms of bias in nursing practice.
In this virtual lecture, Valdez and attendees will:
- compare and contrast disability rights and disability justice
- examine contemporary issues affecting people with disabilities
- co-create strategies for building equity and belonging with people who identify as disabled.
Valdez has published and presented nationally on emergency nursing, trauma, antiracism, bias, environmental justice, health equity, and dedicated education units. She has taught thousands of nurses and health care professionals about providing inclusive, unbiased, and equitable care. In 2023, Valdez was selected as one of the 20 nurse leaders advocating for health equity to follow on social media. In 2022 and 2023, she was selected as one of Brexi’s 30 best nurse influencers to follow on social media. She served as a subject matter expert on the inaugural National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing and contributed to the commission’s foundational paper on racism in nursing. She is currently serving as an independent commissioner.
Valdez is also the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Emergency Nursing and a Fellow in the Academy of Emergency Nursing and the Academy of Associate Degree Nursing.