An international authority on addiction and mental health in sexual minority women will give the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Dean’s Diversity Lecture on Tuesday, Jan. 14, noon-1 p.m. in VUSN’s Nursing Annex room 161.
Tonda Hughes, PhD, RN, FAAN, Associate Dean for Global Health Research and Henrik H. Bendixen Professor of International Nursing at Columbia University School of Nursing, will present “From Gay Bars to Marriage Equality: Building a Program of Research Focused on a Stigmatized and Marginalized Population.”
The lecture is open to the Vanderbilt community, but space is limited. Lecture attendees may order a box lunch for the event at lecture RSVP.
“I met Dr. Hughes at the first National Nursing LGBTQ Health Summit held at Columbia in November,” said Linda D. Norman, DSN, RN, FAAN, dean and Valere Potter Menefee Professor of Nursing. “I immediately wanted our students and faculty to hear her speak. She’s an internationally recognized researcher in the health of LGBTQ people, and passionate about her research and encouraging new and fellow scholars.”
Hughes has a distinguished research career focusing on sexual minority women’s (lesbian and bisexual) mental health and substance use, with funding in excess of $25 million. Her pioneering studies on alcohol use among sexual minority women have received nearly continuous funding since 1999 from the National Institutes of Health. In addition, she has served as co-investigator on numerous other funded studies with multidisciplinary researchers from major U.S. and Australian institutions, including the University of Melbourne and Deakin University.
Her work has included more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and other scholarly papers. She has presented nationally and internationally, and has served as a consultant to many U.S. federal agencies and institutes and international researchers.
She is a member of the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame, the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame, American Academy of Nursing and University of Kentucky College of Nursing Hall of Fame. In 2017, she was honored with the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice Recognition Award for contributions in behavioral health that create humane social justice policy.
Hughes is also Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where she was Collegiate Professor and associate dean for Global Health in the College of Nursing, and adjunct professor in the School of Public Health. She holds/has held honorary or visiting professorships in England (Oxford Brookes University), Australia (University of Melbourne, Deakin University, University of Technology-Sydney) and the U.S. (University of Pennsylvania).
The Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Dean’s Diversity Lecture Series was established in 2016. It explores the diversity of backgrounds, cultures, ideas and viewpoints in our world today. It seeks to equip students, faculty, staff and other community members with the knowledge and understanding needed to lead nursing forward in a global society.