The American Academy of Nursing (AAN) is scheduled to celebrate five distinguished nurse leaders as Living Legends for their extraordinary accomplishments and life-time achievements. Designation as a Living Legend represents AAN’s highest recognition. One of the Living Legends, which will be honored on November 11th 2010 at the Annual Meeting and Conference in Washington, D.C. at the Grand Hyatt, is Betty S. Williams, DrPH, RN, FAAN, President Emerita, National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations, and co-founder of the National Black Nurses Association and Council of Black Nurses, Los Angeles.
Dr. Betty Smith Williams’ leadership has created a pathway for nurses to break barriers and promote racial diversity. Born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, she graduated from Howard University, Washington, D.C in 1950, with B.S. in zoology. Attaining the Master in Nursing degree, from Frances Payne Bolton (FPB), School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland in 1954, she was its first Black graduate to wear their cap.
Her first nursing position was a Visiting Nurse. She and her architect husband moved to Los Angeles, where she became a Public Health Nurse before starting her nursing academic career in 1956. She was the first black nurse in California hired to teach in a baccalaureate and higher degree program by Mount Saint Mary’s College, Los Angeles. She earned a Masters of Science in Mental Health/Public Health Nursing, School of Nursing, UCLA. in 1967. After 13 years at Mount Saint Mary’s College, she joined the faculty at School of Nursing UCLA where she was its first Black Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and then Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs. In 1978 she received a Doctor of Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Administration from UCLA.
She excelled in Academia as the first Black Dean of the School of Nursing, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 1979, serving five years and implemented its first PhD nursing program. Later, she became professor at California State University at Long Beach, retiring in 1996 as Professor Emeriti. In 2006, she became the founding Dean of the American University of Health Sciences (AUHS) School of Nursing.
Dr. Williams lead a steering committee of black nurses in September 1968, to organize the Council of Black Nurses, Los Angeles. She became first president and served for five years. She secured Weir Foundation Grant funds to finance the 1970 California Statewide Conference of Black Nurses which brought together Black Nurses from California, New York and Florida. In 1971 Cleveland meeting she cast the motion to form the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) to increase black nurses’ participation in setting nursing agenda. . A charter member and co founder she was elected NBNA 7th President in 1995. For 39 years, she has provided leadership to NBNA to increase its member’s impact on nursing education, practice and research.
Also, Dr. Williams is a co-founder and first President of the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations (NCEMNA), 1998, which unifies 5 national ethnic minority nurse associations, Black Nurses; Hispanic Nurses; Philippine Nurses; Asian American/Pacific Islander Nurses; Alaska Native American Indian Nurses; representing 350,000 nurses of historically disadvantaged and underserved groups in our nation. She is principal investigator of NCEMNA: Nurse Scientist Stimulation Program, which promotes careers in nursing research through mentoring, education and role modeling to increase the numbers of Ethnic Minority Nurse with doctoral degrees.
Dr. Williams pioneering work includes 15 year Director of Blue Cross of California where she chaired the precursor of the now California Endowment. She was elected in 1980 to Fellow of American Academy of Nursing. Her work includes national appointments to the First Affirmative Action Task Force and first Commission on Human Rights of the American Nurses Association; the National Institute of Mental Health; the Division of Nursing; the National Advisory Council of National Institutes of Nursing Research. She served two terms as National Treasurer of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. She has received over 60 awards and citations including the 1998 Distinguished Alumnae Award, FPB School of Nursing, CWRU. and honorary member of Mu Chi Chapter, Chi Eta Phi Sorority. She is the 2010 recipient of the NBNA Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Williams, “the Mentor”, as cited in the 2003 African American History Calendar, published by Aetna Foundation, continues her life work for future generations of nurses to maximize contributions to professional nursing excellence.
Other 2010 Living Legends are Billye J. Brown, EdD, RN, FAAN, former Dean of Nursing of the University of Texas-Austin, former President American Association of Colleges of Nursing; Donna Diers, PhD, RN, FAAN, former Dean of Yale School of Nursing and former editor of Image: The Journal of Nursing Scholarship; Norma M. Lang, PhD, RN, FRCN, FAAN, former Margaret Bond Simon Dean School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, and leader of Knowledge-Based Nursing Initiative; Barbara Nichols, DHL, MS, RN, FAAN, current CEO Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools, and first black President of the American Nurses Association.
The Council of Black Nurses, Los Angeles, Incorporated is a 501 (3) (C) non-profit professional nursing organization, was initiated in September1968, by Dr. Betty Smith Williams and Mrs. Barbara Johnson to unite all black nurses; to influence policies and legislation that affect black people; and to promote the recruitment of black persons into professional nursing. CBNLA is currently lead by Dr. Othello Childress and she can be reached at (213) 892-6939. For more information, you can visit our website at www.cbnlosangeles.org. or send an email to info@cbnlosangeles.org |
