USF Nursing Diversity Committee joins USF Department of Psychology to offer Diverse Speaker Series

University of South Florida College of Nursing Diversity Committee joined the USF Department of Psychology to offer a Diverse Speaker Series, which brought many prestigious presenters to the College and USF Campus.

The USF Nursing Diversity Committee, under the leadership of Chairperson and College Support Specialist Kimberly Brown, worked with the Psychology Department, American Psychological Association-Graduate Student Division, USF Graduate School, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, School of Social Work, Department of Psychology, and College of Public Health to secure presenters for the Diversity Speaker Series events that appealed to a broad audience.

“As a result, for the last ‘official’ speaker of the series, we were able to bring in Health Psychology Professor from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Hector Myers, PhD,” said Brown. “He came to the USF campus to present on ‘Racial Discrimination in the Context of Lifetime Adversity, Trauma and Mental Health in Low-Income African American and Latino Men and Women’ on March 29.”

During Dr. Myers’ visit, the USF Nursing Diversity Committee hosted a lunch and a Q & A session with him to speak to USF Nursing faculty and discuss similar research interests. Several faculty members attended the session including Assistant Professor and Assistant Dean for Global & Community Affairs at USF College of Nursing, LaRon Nelson, PhD, RN, NP.

“Dr. Myers’ work really tackles a complex social issue that has serious implications for health disparities,” said Nelson after the Q&A session with Dr. Myers. “There are a number of researchers here, including myself, who study people’s experience of stress. After hearing his talk, I have started to think more seriously about the intersecting sources of stress that impact the populations I study and what types of strategies are needed to address them.”