CTAC, who has been working since 2020 to rally faith leaders in this effort, is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit whose mission is to be a voice and improve lives for the 12 million people impacted by serious illness, including their families and caregivers.

Effort tackles health care barriers

With CTAC support, the Trager Institute’s Louisville Community of Care Project – Community Health Worker Initiative to Promote Health Equity (LCCP-CHWPHE) was launched earlier this year with funding from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky to address health disparities in this vulnerable 40203 zip code.

“LCCP is a collaborative effort of more than 15 community partners assembling their collective resources,” said Barbara Gordon, director of community engagement at the Trager Institute. “The church, major hospitals, and community resources are joining forces for the greater good of the people.”

This pilot program employs a dedicated neighborhood community health worker whose aim is to enhance the quality of life for residents through care navigation and community-based support. LCCP’s goal is to enroll 100 residents into the program by the end of 2025. So far, the initiative has offered health screenings and fairs to offer information and resources for 40203 residents.

Connecting the public to resources

Selected for her new role in June 2024 from her paraprofessional community health worker apprenticeship program at Trager Institute, LCCP coordinator Charlie Bell works as a liaison and advocate to improve access to primary care, support early diagnosis, reduce ER visits and address social determinants of health for clients.

With neighborhood input, factors like food, transportation and housing were identified as the most pressing hurdles to health care access and other quality of life issues. LCCP has gathered health care, business and nonprofit partners who can span the spectrum of social services.��

As the point of contact and liaison to connect patients to resources, Bell explained there needs to be more “warm handoffs.”

“We may do a referral through an electronic medical record like MyChart but if it’s someone who doesn’t have an internet connection or doesn’t know how to use the computer, it’s a huge barrier. If we didn’t have the community of care project, then this would never be brought to light.”

Faith leaders fill the trust gap

Historically, one of the biggest challenges for community outreach efforts has been residents’ distrust of health care providers, according to Bell, but leveraging the community’s established relationships with faith leaders is helping to mitigate that factor.

Bell is working with Elder Angela Overton and faith project leads Rev. Dr. Angela Johnson, Rev. Lance West and Pastor Alma Wooley to keep 40203 residents from falling through the cracks of health care and social services access.

Overton, community engagement director for LCCP, and senior advisor and director of Faith Community Partnerships for CTAC said they hand-picked local faith leaders already working beyond the church walls in the local community. “No matter what your religion or if you have a religion, if you are struggling to navigate life with illness or chronic disease, we want to help you.”

The challenge of health inequities

An important overall framework for LCCP identifies stress and health inequities among African Americans, a key demographic of the 40203-zip code. Bell uses this context to address the social determinants of health while working to dismantle structural barriers that perpetuate health disparities.

“We’re still dealing with access to health care issues, mistrust in medical staff and discrimination like we did in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” said Bell. “It’s surprising that these things are still happening in 2025.”

As a strategic planner, Overton works at the intersection of health care, spiritual care and clinical care, and said she has been shocked at the apathy she has seen in some community settings. “The system does not work for everyone, and the disheartening message I hear in boardrooms and executive meetings is that is just how it is,” said Overton. “But this project from the beginning has made profound impacts on this community.” ��Increasing a neighborhood’s access to health care changes lives, adds Bell.

“What may seem like a simple fix or a few phone calls can change the world for a client. Getting an electric wheelchair to someone who was bedridden for three years changed the mobility for one client. She told me, ‘You saved my life, thank you for saving my life’ – you can’t get any higher than that,” Bell said.

LCCP community partners include:

AARP, Accessia Health, Archangels, CenterWell, Chrysalis Ventures, Gilda’s Club, KIPDA, Norton Healthcare, University of Louisville, University of Louisville Trager Institute.

UofL News talked with fourth-year UofL medical student Sierra Shockley about her commitment to addressing health disparities as a Health and Social Justice Scholar (HSJS). Recently selected by the American Lung Association to represent the organization at Respiratory Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C., Shockley met with legislators to address disparities in lung health. Her ongoing advocacy work as a HSJS gave her the chance to not only represent the American Lung Association, but also the University of Louisville.

UofL News: Tell us about your involvement with the Health and Social Justice Scholar (HSJS) program.

Shockley: The mission of this program focuses on addressing health care disparities and promoting equity within underserved populations, which aligns perfectly with my deep-rooted commitment to give back to every community I have the privilege of serving.

What truly excites me about this program is its emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, fostering partnerships between students from various professional and doctoral programs, all working together to tackle the most pressing health inequities. Participating in this program has also challenged me to reflect on my role as a future physician, not just in treating patients but in advocating for systemic change.

UofL News: Why is it so important to address health disparities?

Shockley: ��Health disparities are not just medical problems—they are societal and reflect deep-rooted inequalities that need to be confronted if we are to create a more just and equitable health care system. It’s about making sure that healthcare is fair and accessible to all, no matter where people live or who they are.

It’s a stark reality that something as simple as a zip code can determine a person’s health outcomes, with life expectancy sometimes varying by more than ten years within just a 20-30-mile locational difference. This geographic inequality is just one example of how pervasive and alarming health disparities are. For instance, people of certain racial or ethnic backgrounds are more likely to face higher rates of morbidity and mortality for conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma, simply because of the systemic barriers that exist in their communities.

UofL Health: How can health equity be advanced through community participatory research?

Shockley: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) involves engaging the communities affected by health disparities in every step of the process, from identifying the problems to developing solutions. CBPR allows for a more inclusive and comprehensive approach to tackling disparities, creating interventions that are both culturally relevant and practically applicable. This approach also helps ensure that the research is actionable, impactful, and sustainable while fostering a sense of trust and ownership within the community as they see that their voices and lived experiences are being valued in the research process.

UofL News: Tell me about your experience in Washington D.C. What was your biggest takeaway?

Shockley: My experience standing for the University of Louisville in Washington D.C. was both inspiring and transformative. The biggest takeaway was the profound impact that storytelling and personal narratives can have when advocating for change. While data and research are crucial, it’s often the emotional and human aspects of a story that resonate most with lawmakers.

This experience also highlighted the power of collaboration—whether it’s with fellow advocates, policymakers, or health care professionals. By working together, we were able to amplify our voices and drive home the importance of lung health on a broader scale.

UofL News: How do you plan to use your research/knowledge about health disparities in your medical career/practice?

Shockley: I am fortunate to be working with Dr. Scott Bickel and Dr. Rose Hawkins on a project analyzing the impact of urban greening on asthma exacerbations and related health outcomes. By studying how urban green spaces can mitigate asthma symptoms and improve respiratory health, I am gaining valuable insight into how environmental justice is tied to health equity, and this knowledge will undoubtedly influence how I approach patient care.

As a future surgeon, knowing many underserved communities face significant barriers to accessing surgical care, I hope to focus part of my career on bridging that gap. Whether through global health initiatives, public health programs, or working with underserved populations locally, I aim to be an advocate for systemic change, ensuring that the communities I serve have access to the resources and infrastructure necessary to lead healthier lives.

“Research!Louisville is a great opportunity to explore the important role UofL research plays in our day-to-day lives,” said Kevin Gardner, executive vice president for research and innovation. “That work positively impacts our world, from creating meaningful educational experiences and career pathways for students to developing innovative new technologies and companies.”

The event includes a presentation by author and medical ethicist Harriet Washington on Thursday, Oct. 5 from 12 noon to 1 p.m. at Kornhauser Auditorium on the Health Sciences Center campus presented by UofL’s Office of Institutional Equity and the HSC Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Washington’s latest work is the award-winning “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Experimentation from Colonial Times to the Present.”��

UofL News caught up with V. Faye Jones, a pediatrician and associate vice president for health affairs/diversity initiatives at the UofL Health Sciences Center,��and Kiana Fields, coordinator, UofL Office of Diversity and Inclusion, to talk about the importance of Washington’s research.

UofL News: What kind of perspective does Harriet Washington bring to the discussion about racial health disparities?

���DzԱ��:��She brings great insight into medical ethics and racism, how they intersect with each other. Our work focuses on the harms inflicted on historically minoritized populations by bringing attention to that history now. For many people, it’s the first time they are hearing that history. She tells us about things we may have not delved as deep in as we should have and holds all of us accountable for it.

�󾱱�����:��Washington’s been doing this work for decades. She saw a need and a gap within the literature to address the longitudinal atrocities that have taken place. In addition to medical apartheid, she has talked about the erosion of informed consent and how it’s systemic racism.
She incorporates different identities and different systems of oppression and explores the health impacts and the ethical dilemmas that exist as well.

UofL News: What are some of the specific ways Washington has shined a light on little-known history of medical inequity?

Fields:��She started going deeper into her research for medical apartheid when she was working in a hospital and saw medical files of kidney failure patients that were different for Blacks and whites. While the files were comparatively similar, in the Black patient’s file, it said imminent demise was expected. That’s when she knew some of her suspicions were true and there was more that needed to be uncovered. One other medical story is about J. Marion Sims, who was known as the father of gynecology. This physician and researcher conducted painful experiments without anesthesia using enslaved women, which ultimately led to important gynecological advances. There is a lack of acknowledgement of the harms that were done in that way.

Jones:��First, we need to acknowledge this, showing that these disparities exist and then understanding why they exist, and then developing and implementing strategies to change it. Just like Kiana said about the kidney patients, there are so many things where if you’re black then you get this type of treatment, and if you’re not black you get this. So how is that right? It’s not. You focus on these things so that we can correct and hopefully improve patient care and address health disparities to get us more to that standard of health equity.

UofL News: According to CDC data, Black women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women, with most of the maternal deaths being preventable. Multiple factors contribute to these disparities, such as variation in quality health care, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism and implicit bias.��How does Washington’s examination of the history of medical inequities help inform the present?

Fields:��With Black maternal and infant mortality disparities, we often think that if you were in a higher socioeconomic status that you would be exempt. But a great example of that is Serena Williams. She had preeclampsia for her first pregnancy and the physicians didn’t take her concerns seriously, and so she found herself in a very precarious situation where both her life and her child’s life were in danger.

Jones:��When you look at what happened with Serena Williams and the pulmonary embolism, I think it’s important to note that if that can happen to a person of that stature, that wealth and who is that well known, then what is happening to people who don’t have voices? Are they invisible? With Black maternal mortality, it’s amazing how it is present in every community, including in Jefferson County. There is such a disparity there and we must be able to say yes, it exists, and to look into the root causes of it and do something about it, not just talk about it.

UofL News: For those who come to hear Harriet Washington’s presentation on October 5, what questions and reflections do you hope it prompts for people?

���DzԱ��:��One thing I would hope it would prompt is to ask what does it look like in the health care system and where we are right now where we live and what kind of things can we do?��Each one of us can make a difference here. We are not waiting for somebody else to take that banner and run with it, but what can we do as individuals to make that difference? Because each of us have the power to make a change.

Fields:��I believe Harriet Washington, in her work, is elevating that we all have a shared responsibility to start to disrupt these systems of oppression and acknowledge and reimagine our health care system to benefit the most vulnerable populations in our society. How do we continue to strive to uncover the hidden voices? How do we continue to not only take action, but also start reconciling the atrocities and healing some of the harm that has been done so that we can create interventions that are long lasting?

for the event.

Supported by the University of Louisville, the Humana Foundation and the Health Equity Innovation Hub, the Air Justice website,, debuts at noon, March 28.

More than 50 UofL students have worked on the project since 2021 with a coalition that includes professors, community leaders and activists. The team conducted nearly 2,000 surveys around the Rubbertown area and also held workshops with residents to determine residents’ informational needs.

Rubbertown was named for the tire and synthetic rubber plants built there during World War II. Air quality in the area has suffered as a result. In west and southwest Louisville, the areas that border Rubbertown, residents are predominantly Black and other people of color, most of whom also experience poverty.

“The Air Justice team considers air quality an environmental health equity issue, one that has a lot to do with literacy or with how information about air quality is distributed in the city,” said Megan Poole, UofL assistant professor of English, College of Arts & Sciences. “The Air Justice website decodes the science and health effects of air pollution, uncovers the history of environmental injustice in West Louisville, amplifies residents’ stories related to air pollution, and directs residents to resources for reporting odors and pushing for increased air quality regulation.”��

In addition to Poole and the students, the��Environmental Health Literacy Coalition�����Գ����ܻ���:

• Shavonnie Carthens, assistant professor of law, Louis D. Brandeis School of Law;
• Keisha Dorsey, who formerly represented Louisville Metro Council District 3, an area bordering Rubbertown, and is now deputy chief of staff to Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, and
• the grassroots activist group Rubbertown Emergency Action (REACT).

Human health risks associated with the chemicals released in the Rubbertown area are over 10,000 times higher than the industry average.

“Even more pronounced is the inequity of this health issue,” Poole said. “Over 60% of residents identify as ‘minority,’ over 50% identify as Black, and over 52% experience poverty.”

This website launch is only the beginning of Air Justice’s health equity work. “This website is a communal work in progress,” Carthens said. The project aims to co-create health equity solutions alongside residents and local communities.

Air Justice also launched on Instagram (@airjusticelou) and Facebook (Air Justice Louisville) to begin engaging community members prior to the public launch of the website.��

The project has received over $350,000 through support from The Gheens Foundation,��and the Humana Foundation.

UofL News: How was the idea for the Health Equity Innovation Hub developed?��

Monica Wendel: The Hub is a collaboration between UofL, The Humana Foundation, and Humana Inc. aimed at closing health equity gaps. It became clear that health equity was a shared goal between the organizations. Realizing this shared goal, UofL Executive Vice President of Research & Innovation Kevin Gardner invited me to lead the development of the collaboration. Not long after, Humana’s inaugural Chief Health Equity Officer, Nwando Olayiwola, was named and both Humana and The Humana Foundation deepened their existing commitment to working towards equitable health systems for each person and community.

UofL News: Break down for us, please, the main mission of the Hub.��

Wendel: The mission of the Hub is to advance social and health equity for structurally marginalized communities. In recognizing that health outcomes and inequities are driven by social determinants, which in turn are shaped by structural determinants, the Hub is committed to working across multiple levels of social ecology in ways that provide communities made vulnerable equitable access to the resources they need to be healthy and whole. We are doing this by integrating the research power of the university, the resources of industry, the expertise of the community in these issues, and the ingenuity and creativity of innovators and entrepreneurs — especially those who hold minoritized identities — in solving health equity issues.

UofL News: Why is this work so important at this time?��

Wendel: Everyone wants to be healthy, but the choices people make are the choices people have. And we don’t all have the same choices – our health care, housing, food and other systems offer more choice and accessibility to some people than others. For Black and brown populations, LGBTQ+ populations, foreign-born populations, rural populations and populations living in poverty, the structures and systems enact and reinforce marginalization that produces health inequities.

It’s important here to differentiate between ‘disparities’ and ‘inequities.’ Health disparities refer to differences in risk, incidence, morbidity, disability and mortality in various conditions between different groups. Health inequities more specifically identify differences between groups that are unjust, unnecessary and preventable. The structures and systems we create and maintain produce inequities — we as a society are responsible for that. But that also means it can be changed. If it’s going to change, we have to change it.��Equity will not happen organically.

UofL News: Please describe the research aspect of the Hub.��

Wendel: A key aspect of the Hub is the integration of research, community engagement, innovation, entrepreneurship, strategic relationships and talent development to achieve specific outcomes toward advancing health equity. This integration is both the most innovative and the most challenging facet of the work; because of it, people in Louisville and beyond will thrive.

I have had the privilege of assembling a team of individuals who are rock stars in their respective areas of expertise. But doing things the way they’ve been done is going to continue to get us what we’ve got – which is inequity. So, our team is intentionally doing the hard work of not operating in silos of individual areas of expertise, and bringing all areas of expertise to the strategies and activities in each of our workstreams. In that way, we are advancing health equity at multiple levels of social ecology and interconnecting community sectors that likely would not otherwise be connected. Those cross-sector network relationships will transform systems to advance health equity and will endure long past all of us.��

Thanks to the Humana Foundation’s gift, the Hub is able to support minoritized researchers and novel health equity research. We put out our first call for research proposals in March, and through a rigorous review process, awarded over $1 million to fund 10 health equity research projects.

UofL News:��As a public health researcher, you’ve worked over 20 years addressing aspects of health inequity and factors related to social determinants of health. How does the Hub build upon what you’ve learned through your own research?

Wendel:��My vision and design for the Hub is grounded in several things I’ve learned over the course of my career. First, people have a right to self-determination. For minoritized populations, our systems have historically stripped away this right.��The people most impacted by health inequities of any kind are the most expert in those inequities, and often have valuable insights and innovative ideas for how to solve them. We must listen and engage the communities affected. Solutions brought in from outside those communities rarely have the intended magnitude of effects.

Second, we must work upstream and downstream at the same time and across sectors — advancing health equity requires organization and strategy. Although the United States has made some gains in health equity efforts, there is still much work to be done in addressing inequities and ensuring everyone has access to resources that support good health. Our downstream interventions must address immediate needs and advance health equity at that level.

But we cannot achieve sustainable gains in health equity unless we also work upstream, with communities that have historically experienced these inequities. For example, inequities in maternal health outcomes for people of color may result from lower quality of care, but they may also result from experience of racism within the health care system. Improving quality of care downstream only addresses part of the problem; if people do not seek care because of distrust of the health care system, they will not benefit from improved quality of care. There must be simultaneous work addressing systemic racism in the health care system. Thus, our upstream interventions must transform systems to reduce health inequities, while downstream, we work to ensure equitable access to health resources. Both of these efforts are necessary, and neither on its own is sufficient.

Third, our interventions must be planned for way beyond the term of a grant. Initiatives intended to advance health equity must not bring needed resources to a marginalized community that then disappear at the end of the grant; this results in real harm to real humans. Any kind of equity work requires intellectual and cultural humility and a conscious intent on doing no harm. There is no substitute.

So he founded GROW502: A Health Disparities Series to highlight these disparities and begin to make changes. Two other medical students and an undergraduate student from UofL joined him to lead the project, which will include anyone from across the university and the community who would like to participate in the project’s education, engagement and advocacy events.

First-year medical students Lisa��Anakwenze��and Zoha Mian, along with Chidum Okeke, a senior UofL undergraduate student, and Udoh outlined a multimodal approach to transforming�� the into a living representation of the current state of health in Louisville. Through art, new media and virtual workshops, the group will educate community members, students, staff, faculty and health care professionals about health disparities revealed in the report, while simultaneously empowering them to enact change.��

Beginning the week of Feb. 8, students across the university are invited to join project leaders and community members in weekly activities focused on education, community engagement, advocacy and edutainment focused on ways to reduce health inequity.

����ֱ�� panels will be led by Udoh and medical interest groups in ob/gyn, pediatrics, nutrition, neurology and psychiatry.

Anakwenze is leading community engagement by working with community partners such as Feed the West – Change Today, Change Tomorrow, Family Health Centers, Louisville Lead Prevention Program, the Kentucky State Health Department and Healthy Babies to provide direct avenues to make a change within the Louisville Metro area.

Mian will lead weekly advocacy workshops to bring local policymakers together with students to advocate for a brighter tomorrow.

Okeke’s team will work to package and market the project, using the power of creative media to present unique perspectives on health disparities in Louisville. With edutainment ranging from infographics to videos to cartoons, the marketing team will create an engaging virtual environment to increase community awareness of the disparities that exist, with the goal of reducing their effects.��

“Overall, the mission of this project is to plant seeds of information and inspiration in our local community that will lead to a long-term reduction in Louisville’s health disparities,” Udoh said. “Our role is to support the sustainable growth of our community as we grow a better tomorrow.”

Students, professionals and community members are encouraged to participate in the events by signing up through . The activities, both live and virtual, and a schedule of events will be published on the group’s website,��.��

UofL News: Tell us about your research.��

Jade Chatman: My research focus is health promotion and disease prevention in vulnerable populations through the development of strategies to increase nursing workforce diversity. To support this effort, I established a partnership with a high school pre-nursing program that serves primarily minority and low-income students.

My dissertation research builds on a completed pilot study I conducted as a Health and Social Justice Scholar. I explored the perceptions of pre-nursing high school students regarding the profession of nursing, as well as factors related to academic and non-academic success, and barriers to success in nursing education. Findings from this pilot serve as the foundation for development of a targeted intervention that addresses the individual, social and cultural contexts identified by the students.

The purpose of my dissertation study is to test the feasibility of a research-based, online educational intervention for pre-nursing high school students in improving attitudes toward and knowledge about nursing as a career, along with improving career and college readiness self-efficacy and decision making.

UofL News: What are your career goals and how do you hope to impact or change the future of nursing?��

Jade Chatman: My professional goals involve becoming a nurse leader and affecting health policy by applying scientific knowledge as the centerpiece of my career as a tenured professor. I aim to recruit and educate future nurses, ensuring they have the support to be successful and are prepared for real-world nursing in a multi-cultural society. My success strategy will be to identify the barriers they face and implement interventions to overcome these barriers. Most importantly, I want to address the complex health needs of diverse and dynamic populations by developing a learning environment that fosters intellectual inquiry, passion and commitment to underserved communities through the advancement of nursing science.

UofL News: Is this scholarship earmarked for something in particular?

Jade Chatman: As I enter my final year of doctoral study, a scholarship will help me focus my professional career on addressing health disparities and becoming a nurse educator by alleviating some financial burden associated with obtaining my PhD degree. In particular, the scholarship will assist with financing dissertation-related expenses such as participant incentives for recruitment and study supplies for data analysis. Also, expenses related to the dissemination of study results.��

UofL News: What other thoughts would you like to share?

Jade Chatman: Earlier this year, I received the Nurses ����ֱ��al Foundation Laura D. Smith National Student Nurses’ Association Scholarship.��This scholarship��is given to a graduate student��who was a National Student Nurses Association member as an undergraduate and has demonstrated excellence in nursing scholarship and service.��

As I transitioned from college to the clinical setting as a registered nurse, I continued to see the impact of race and ethnic background in health care including provider bias and health disparities. I firmly believe that every person should have access to fair, non-discriminatory health care.

Nurse advocacy is an essential part of the development of health care legislation, and educating populations about their health rights is a fundamental duty of nurses. I grew to better appreciate the importance of these tenets as a nurse in the clinical setting. As a result, I resigned from my clinical role so that I could pursue a PhD in Nursing full-time to expand my knowledge to better address these critical factors.

As the winner, Mitchell received free registration for the AcademyHealth 2019 Annual Research Meeting, a certificate of recognition, and her op-ed has been published on the��Health Affairs��Blog��and shared with interest group meeting attendees.

“Carmen is the epitome of a model PhD student and this is quite an honor within our health services research profession. We’re proud of her accomplishment and believe she is a great representation of the school and our department,” said Chris Johnson, PhD, chair, Department of Health Management and Systems Sciences.

Mitchell discovered the contest while browsing through social media. A few weeks prior to discovering the contest, she had her first-ever op-ed submission published on Insider Higher Ed, so she decided to go for this one as well.��

Health disparities is a focus of Mitchell’s and something she feels very passionate about. She explained that through her own experience with disparities, whether through research, the classroom, or just talking to people, she finds that sometimes the conversation can stay surface-level.

“If people don’t have a deeper understanding of the root causes of health that go beyond some of the high-level factors (like income), and it can especially be tricky to talk about ways where our own societal systems are actually contributing to those problems (whether intentionally designed to or not). I think if we can have more of those discussions, it can help us move forward in research, policy and intervention designs.”

Mitchell said she was shocked to learn she won and feels honored to have her op-ed published in��Health Affairs��while representing SPHIS and HMSS.

“While I am very honored, I know these are not new ideas and I’m very grateful to all the scholars—both inside and outside of public health—who have been uplifting these ideas for a long time. Most importantly though, I just hope it can help push the conversation forward a little more,” she said.��

Read her editorial on the��.

Strange will graduate with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisville School of Nursing during winter commencement Thursday, Dec. 15, at the KFC Yum! Center where she will serve as the student speaker.

In addition to the honor of serving as the student speaker, she was chosen as the Fall 2016 President’s Outstanding Graduate from the School of Nursing, bringing an unorthodox perspective to the program.

The 31-year-old earned a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from Vassar College in 2007 and returned to her hometown to teach English to immigrants from Vietnam, Mexico, Myanmar and Somalia living in Louisville’s South End.

Inspired to gain more international service experience, Strange joined the Peace Corps and was stationed in an impoverished village in Bulgaria. She worked in youth development, focusing on anti-trafficking and sexual and reproductive health awareness.

“It was an entire community that had no consistent access to medical care,” Strange said. “To me, health care is a fundamental human right that we should make equitable and accessible.”��

The Peace Corps experience prompted her to pursue a career in health care as a way to improve the lives of underserved populations. Her gut instinct had her consider the UofL School of Nursing and eventually work with those in need in her own community.

She began to view her hometown through a nursing lens, working in the emergency department at Norton Hospital, and grasped the health disparities that lower income residents face.

“We see a lot of people who use the ER as primary care for chronic conditions,” Strange said. “Some patients would try to stay in the hospital as long as they could because they didn’t have a way to receive care otherwise.”

She’s pulled from experiences in her nontraditional background to connect with and serve the disadvantaged in Louisville. On the cusp of entering the nursing workforce, Strange aspires to work in family care for a local nonprofit health center.

Her nursing education was fully supported by the selective , which helps alleviate the critical shortage of health care providers in federally-designated areas by requiring scholarship recipients to work at facilities in these areas for at least two years upon graduation.

School of Nursing Assistant Professor Glenda Adams, MSN, RNC, IBCLC, called Strange a future nursing leader.

“In a large cohort of nursing students, Karina stood out and shined,” Adams said. “She is the type of person that the future of the nursing profession needs. She is kind, patient and passionate about nursing.”