Season 5, Episode 3: Celebrating 30 Years of Leadership and Learning in Health Professions with Dr. Kenya Beard

Season Five Episode Three: Kenya Beard 

 

In celebration of the Harvard Macy Institute’s 30th anniversary, this blog & podcast series honors the remarkable individuals who have shaped and supported our community over the years. These accomplished educators, leaders, and champions of health professions education have contributed to the institute’s enduring legacy. Through their leadership, innovation, and commitment to advancing education, they continue to inspire and guide future generations. Join us as we highlight their journeys, achievements, and reflections on the impact of HMI on their professional lives and the wider global community. 

 

This episode of the Harvard Macy Institute podcast features Dr. Kenya Beard, the inaugural dean and chief academic officer for the School of Nursing at Mercy University, and much admired member of the HMI community. A nurse, nurse practitioner, and educator by training, Kenya is now serving in leadership and advocacy roles at a national level. She views education as both “an art and a science,” and dedicates her work to strengthening academia’s capacity to prepare a diverse, practice-ready workforce by equipping faculty with the skills to promote belongingness for each student. Her research interests include identifying and mitigating barriers to eliminating health care disparities and exploring ways to strengthen diversity in nursing. 

Described as the ‘fearless Kenya Beard’, she offered us some personal insights into her motivation and strategy for making a difference in healthcare. Kenya describes how her training and experience as an educator served her well for roles in advocacy and leadership. She shared the powerful impact of her time at Harvard Macy, where she learned about the difference between change and transformation. Kenya also gave us some practical insights as to how values can be instilled among the practicalities of health professional learning.  

In Kenya’s eyes, ‘fearless’ is about not being afraid to make mistakes, and to learn and improve from them, our podcast conversation illustrates how she lives up to that description. 

Click here to listen now! 

 

Kenya Beard, EdD, AGACNP-BC, ANEF, FAAN, FADLN, is the dean and chief nursing officer at Mercy University School of Nursing and the president of the Academy of Diversity Leaders in Nursing. She is a 2012 Macy Faculty Scholar and founded the Health Equity Influencers Program for high school students, nursing students, and nurse educators. In her past work as a senior fellow at the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement, she co-produced health care disparity segments with over 400,000 listeners on WBAI-FM. 

 

Your host for this episode is Victoria Brazil (Educators, ’05, Leaders ’07, Assessment ‘10). Victoria is Professor of Emergency Medicine at Bond University Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine. She hosts the HMI podcast, and is co-producer of Simulcast - a podcast about healthcare simulation.