Events

Sarah DiGregorio is the critically acclaimed author of Early: An Intimate History of Premature Birth and What It Teaches Us About Being Human. She is a freelance journalist who has written on health care and other topics for The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Slate, Insider, and Catapult.

Tobi Ash, MBA, BSN, RN, is the director of women’s health in a clinic in South Florida. Although she lives in Florida, Tobi joined forces with other nurses in New York to form the EMES Initiative. This volunteer-based, nurse-led non-profit organization started in response to the measles outbreak in 2018 in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in New York City and Rockland County. This organization is dedicated to providing health education and combatting misinformation in this community, especially around preventable diseases. She is the editor-in-chief and main contributor for PIE: Vaccine Information for Parents Informed and Educated, a project of the EMES Initiative, and an active philanthropist for projects relating to hunger, poverty, and education.

Dr. Roxana Chicas, PhD, RN, is an assistant professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, where she researches occupational and environmental health disparities, investigating the physiological effects of chronic heat exposures among agricultural workers through community-engaged research. In collaboration with the Farmworker Association of Florida, she has led two heat-illness intervention studies using real-time biomonitoring equipment among immigrant farmworkers in the U.S. Southeast, which has the potential for widespread impact against heat-related illness in vulnerable outdoor workers. As a bilingual bicultural nurse scientist, she is committed to conducting research that informs policy to advance environmental justice.

Dr. Katie Huffling, DNP, RN, CNM, FAAN, is a certified nurse-midwife and the executive director of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE). With ANHE, Dr. Huffling works with nurses and nursing organizations to elevate environmental health issues, such as climate change, toxic chemicals, and sustainability in health care, amongst the nursing profession. She is a passionate supporter of nurse-led advocacy in support of healthier environments for all.

Dr. Huffling received her DNP in Health Innovation and Leadership from the University of Minnesota. She is an appointed member of the US Environmental Protection Agency Children’s Health Protection Advisory Council and a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Decarbonizing the U.S. Health Sector. She was a recipient of the 2018 Charlotte Brody Award, which recognizes nurses who go beyond everyday nursing endeavors to proactively promote and protect environmental health.

Dr. Sherri Wilson, DNP, MPA, RN, is a health care leader who currently serves in a national role as Director of Partnership Development and Career Pathways SME at Stride Inc., where she is responsible for developing industry partnership opportunities to support student employment and work-based learning opportunities.

Dr. Wilson has since worked in various leadership roles throughout her career, including as an operations director for Kaiser Permanente, where she led a system-wide workforce development initiative to advance the education of over 600 medical assistants across the organization through industry partnerships. In addition, she established a Regional Perinatal Service Center to improve health outcomes associated with high-risk obstetric patient populations across DC, Maryland, and Virginia.