The North Carolina Central University Department of Nursing will host the 16th Annual Helen S. Miller Lectureship and Luncheon on Thursday, March 1, at the Nursing Building, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Dr. Debra J. Barksdale, associate professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the guest speaker. Barksdale will speak from the topic, “Health Disparities.”

Debra J. Barksdale

A certified family nurse practitioner, adult nurse practitioner and nurse educator, Dr. Barksdale has more than 20 years of experience in such areas as urgent care, primary care home care and care of the under-served. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and president-elect of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties.

In 2010 she was appointed to the Board of Governors of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. She is the only nurse serving on the board.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Barksdale chairs the master’s executive committee, co-chairs the graduate faculty committee and is a member faculty development and faculty executive committee at the UNC-CH School of Nursing.

A graduate of University of Virginia, where she completed her bachelor’s degree, she holds a master’s degree from Howard University and a doctorate from the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on stress and cardiovascular disease in African-Americans.

(NCCU News)