Speakers
Dean Pamela Jeffries, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH
Dr. Pamela Jeffries is internationally known for her research and work in nursing, simulation, and health care. She is recognized for her scholarly contributions to executive leadership, the delivery of content using technology, and development of innovative teaching strategies, experiential learning techniques and new pedagogies. As Principal Investigator on grants funded by federal and state agencies and numerous national organizations, Dr. Jeffries has provided leadership and mentorship on ground-breaking projects impacting both nursing practice and education. With the National League for Nursing, Dr. Jeffries developed the major contribution to simulation scholarship, the framework and monograph now known as the NLN Jeffries Simulation Theory.
She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the Society for Simulation in Health care Academy, the Academy of Nurse Educators and inductee into the Sigma Theta Tau International Research Hall of Fame.
Dean Yolanda Pierce, PhD
Dr. Yolanda Pierce is a scholar, writer, womanist theologian, and accomplished administrator in higher education. Her scholarly research specialties include African American religious history, womanist theology, and race and religion. A widely published author, she has written several books, essays, and articles for academic and trade journals including Time Magazine, Theology Today, and Christianity & Literature. Dr. Pierce served as the Founding Director of the Center for African American Religious Life at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Pew Foundation. In addition to her teaching and academic scholarship, Dr. Pierce is a native New Yorker, public theologian, community activist, and ordained minister.
Khette Cox
Khette Cox works as a hospice chaplain in the greater Nashville area. A 2009 graduate of Vanderbilt Divinity School, she has been in spiritual care since her ordination at Glendale Baptist Church (through the Alliance of Baptists), in 2010. Her BA is from Emery and Henry University. Khette also holds an MA in history from East Tennessee State University. Khette resides in Old Hickory, Tennessee where she enjoys her close-knit neighborhood, kayaking on Alegre Lake, hiking at area trails, and lounging with her four year-old Newfoundland mix dog Felix. She is also learning piano and guitar in order to nurture her inner child rockstar. You can pre-order tickets for her inaugural concert (date TBD) shortly.
Rev. Ian Cullen, MDiv, BCC
Rev. Ian Cullen, MDiv, BCC, Staff Chaplain is the Palliative Care Chaplain for Vanderbilt University Medical Center for the inpatient and Outpatient Palliative Care Teams. Ian received a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oakland City University. Ian did his clinical residency training through the Nashville/St. Thomas Clinical Pastoral Education Partnership where he worked at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, and he did his clinical internship with the Veteran’s Administration Tennessee Valley Healthcare System Nashville Campus. Ian has published and been involved in research on bereavement support and spirituality in palliative care. Ian is endorsed for chaplaincy through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and has a prior ordination from the General Baptist denomination. Ian is a Watson Caring Science Caritas Leader.
Dahron Johnson
Dahron Johnson, a clinically-trained chaplain, serves as the Bereavement Coordinator for a hospice serving middle Tennessee, advocating for equity & flourishing across multiple communities. Outside this space, Dahron is co-chair of the Nashville Committee of the Tennessee Equality Project—a statewide legislative advocacy organization for LGBTQIA+ Tennesseans—as well as serving on the community advisory council for the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, which focuses on building capacity and systems for those with physical, intellectual, and developmental disabilities. She has been a member of the institutional review board for human subject research for the VA’s middle-TN health system for over 15 years, and also currently serves as the Secretary on the Metro Nashville & Davidson County’s Title VI anti-discrimination body, the Metro Human Relations Commission. Regardless of location, Chaplain Johnson advocates persistently for keeping the voices of those with whom she works central to their own journeys.
Gloria Littlemouse, PhD, RN, MSN-Ed
Dr. Gloria Littlemouse has distinguished herself as an end-of-life specialist and presenter for the Five Wishes Advanced Directive program. Her expertise encompasses her roles as an end-of-life doula and a nurse executive/regional director of hospice nursing. Dr. Littlemouse serves as an assistant professor of nursing at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, where she has undertaken responsibilities in both clinical and community engagement. She also leads a VUSN team to integrate Dr. Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring and the 10-Caritas processes into the nursing curriculum and to conduct a pilot study. Dr. Littlemouse’ s research and practice are predicated on the conviction that comprehensive preparation is essential for ensuring patients experience a dignified and quality-centered end-of-life journey.
Dr. Graham Reside, PhD, MDiv
Dr. Graham Reside is executive director of the Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership in the Professions and assistant professor at Vanderbilt Divinity School. His background is in leadership development and academic training in the areas of sociology of religion and morality. His interests include ethics, sociology of culture and religion, sociology of the professions, and the sociology of emotions. Dr. Reside's research and teaching interests are in the role of social institutions as schools of moral formation. Through the shaping of our ideas, values and sentiments, the various professional spheres provide particular moral understandings of the virtuous self and the good society. As the director of the Cal Turner Program, Dr. Reside seeks to facilitate discussions across the various professions about their moral purposes and perspectives and to encourage professionals to consider how they contribute to the common good.
Rejon Taylor
Rejon Taylor is an artist/writer who has spent more than half his life living in solitary confinement on Death Row in a federal prison in Terre Haute, IN., for a crime he committed when he was only 18 years old. His resilient spirit and commitment to truth and justice brings light to the darkest of circumstances. During Donald Trump’s first presidency, Rejon witnessed 13 of his fellow death row inmates executed in just 6 months. To be on death row is to care for the dying and the despised. Rejon has served the role of caregiver to those facing execution for many years, and he is eager to share what he knows about end of life care for those who have been sentenced to die at the hands of the State.
Dr. Candy Wilson, PhD, APRN, WHNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN
Dr. Candy Wilson is a women’s health-focused nurse scientist whose research has significantly impacted military women's health and health care. Her work has focused on three key areas: illness behaviors of deployed military women managing genitourinary symptoms, maintaining healthy iron status for female trainees, and integrative medicine treatments for low back pain. These research initiatives have led to changes in health care practice through policy and education, providing evidence-based support for women in traditionally male-dominated positions. Since 2006, Dr. Wilson has been reporting research results that informed military medic training, updated supply lists for deployed settings, and improved pre-deployment checklists for women. Her contributions were pivotal in preparing for the Secretary of Defense's decision in January 2016 to open all military occupations to women, including combat positions. She also led a Military Women’s Health Research Interest Group, funded by the TriService Nursing Research Program, which contributed to the July 2015 report to Congress, "Deployment Health for Women."
Dr. Wilson honorably served in the active duty U.S. Air Force and retired in 2022. Throughout her career, she provided patient care as a clinical nurse and women’s health nurse practitioner, including delivering women’s health care in Afghanistan villages to more than 3,000 women and children. She has published 57 peer-reviewed papers and three book chapters, and has been awarded over $22 million in research funding. She is associate dean of research and scholarship and a tenured professor at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University, where her research goals include collaborating on military and veteran research focusing on sex and gender differences in health and well-being, including alternative therapies.
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Join us on February 7th.