Welcome from the Founder and President of the Stanford Medicine Black Nurses Association, Associate Chief Nursing Officer of Research and Health Equity, SHC

Welcome to our Stanford Medicine Black Nurses Association intranet site at Stanford Health Care, the only west coast academic medical center/hospital-based chapter, part of the non-profit national organization, The National Black Nurses Association, founded in 2021. Our mission is to serve as the voice for Black nurses and diverse populations ensuring equal access to professional development, promoting educational opportunities, and improving health.

-Our goal is to advance nursing practice, patient care, and research, with an emphasis on health equity, across Stanford Medicine and society-at-large through leading, developing, sponsoring, and sustaining partnerships with our National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) and local chapters, community-based organizations, nursing academia, and care delivery institutions.

-Our purpose is to Network, Educate, Advocate, and Empower. Through interprofessional collaborations with Stanford Health Care and the National Black Nurses Association, the Stanford Medicine chapter is engaged in a shared agenda that empowers and prepares innovative health care leaders to address systematic injustices and promote a legacy of health equity.

We continue to promote membership to engage in several initiatives to support our mission. We encourage all nurses to become a member to make our community more cohesive, collective, and powerful. SMBNA membership can show the strength of our numbers to our decision-makers and to the public, connect more easily and effectively with one another on projects and ideas, and better nurture and support our growing network.

Benefits of Membership in the SMBNA Chapter of the NBNA, include:

• Discounted Chapter Registration for new members during special recruitment campaigns.
• Professional development offerings by leading nurse scholars.
• The opportunity to participate in the Day on the Hill in Washington, DC event, to meet with United States legislators for a thoughtful discussion on the NBNA priorities for health equity among underserved patients and families and nursing workforce diversity.
• The satisfaction that comes with taking this meaningful step of declaring yourself part of our community of nursing advocates. We can grow our capacity to achieve our shared mission for a healthy, equal-opportunity, professional network.
• Promoting and elevating future nurse leaders driven by a passion for discovery, healthcare innovation, scientific research, and operational impact. We offer research consultations and nurse legacy grants to all nurses.
• Networking and building alliances between our academic institution, nursing, and interprofessional researchers, and the community—to inspire advances in health equity and research.

Whether you are a new or seasoned nurse, a community organization, academic nursing institution, current faculty, staff, or trainee/student at Stanford Health Care looking to join or collaborate, we invite you to explore with us how we can potentially work together to build mutually beneficial knowledge sharing, resources, and opportunities to improve clinical practice, patient care, and health equity.

With warmest regards,

Michelle Y. Williams, PhD, RN, FAAN
Founder and President, Stanford Medicine Black Nurses Association Chapter of the NBNA
Chair, Elections Taskforce National Black Nurses Association
Associate Chief Nursing Officer of Research and Health Equity, Stanford Health Care
Founder & Section Chief, Nursing Research Section, Stanford University School of Medicine