56th Southwest Region Annual Meeting & Education Conference

Dr. Williams is the Associate Dean of Health Sciences and Nursing Program Director at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica California. Dr. Williams served as the Co-Lead for the AARP/Robert Woods Johnson Steering Committee for Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity from 2019-2022. He is the12th President of the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA). Dr. Williams earned a BSN degree in 1986 from William Carey University, Hattiesburg Mississippi. Dr. Williams pursued a Master’s of Science Degree in Nursing with a focus in Adult Health from the University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama. Upon completion of the MSN degree, Dr. Williams was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Dillard University, New Orleans, LA. In 2007, Dr. Williams earned a Doctorate of Nursing Practice Degree from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. Dr. Williams has presented locally, nationally and internationally on a variety of health-related topics. He served on the Board of Directors of the Haiti Nursing Foundation, American Association for Men in Nursing and the California State Nurses Assn/ANA as the Director of Education. Also, Dr. Williams was inducted into the William Carey University Hall of Fame and received the National Black Nurses Association Trailblazer Award. Dr. Williams is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the Academy of Nursing Education.

Nakia C. Best, PhD, RN received her doctoral degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing at University of California, Irvine. Dr. Best is an advocate for the importance of having a school nurse in every K-12 school. She leverages data to provide valuable insights on how school nurses and the services they provide improve student health and education outcomes and health equity. Dr. Best's dissertation, titled The Impact of School Nurses on Student Health and Education Outcomes, was a culmination of school nurse reported data on school nurse health services in North Carolina. Her latest projects, funded by the National Association of School Nurses and NIH/NCATS UCLA CTSI include: 1) using school nurse reported data to investigate the impact of factors on medication administration accuracy, and 2) understanding the impact of COVID-19 among school nurses and school nurse health services.