Two faculty from the Rush University College of Nursing were selected to join the American Academy of Nursing’s 2021 Class of Fellows. Angela Moss, PhD, MSN, APRN-BC, RN, and Monique Reed, PhD, MSN, RN, were honored with this career milestone based on their significant contributions to advance public health and promote health equity. They are among only five distinguished nurse leaders from Illinois and only 225 from across the United States who were recognized for their achievements.
Both Moss and Reed will be inducted at the Academy’s annual Health Policy Conference, which takes place October 7–9, 2021.
The induction is a well-deserved honor for two faculty who have made a significant impact on the College of Nursing and nursing practice, says Christine M. Kennedy, PhD, RN, FAAN, the John L. and Helen Kellogg Dean of Nursing.
“Young leaders like Dr. Moss and Dr. Reed are critical to the future of driving health equity, one of our key strategic initiatives at the College of Nursing,” says Kennedy. “They represent the cutting edge of what nursing can contribute to the health of the nation, and we are thrilled they have received one of the most prestigious honors in nursing, joining the ranks of over 30 current and former Rush nursing luminaries in the Academy.”
Moss Leads College’s Faculty Practice Initiatives
As assistant dean of faculty practice, Moss guides the College of Nursing’s efforts to deliver comprehensive, evidence-based nursing services and direct care to diverse populations across Chicagoland. She leads the Rush Nursing Office of Faculty Practice, which works with more than 30 community partners to provide a wide range of clinical services, primarily to underserved populations.
Moss was drawn to nursing after becoming a candy striper at her local hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind., during her teen years. “I rotated into the intensive care units and got to know some of the nurses, who would talk to me about their work,” says Moss, who is also an assistant professor in the Department of Community, Systems and Mental Health Nursing. “I really loved it.”
Moss earned her BSN from Loyola University Chicago and her MSN from Emory University. Through Emory, she traveled to Cuba to study community-based care delivery. She joined the faculty at Rush in 2006 and received her PhD from Rush University in 2017. She was drawn to Rush for its teacher-practitioner model and faculty practice program.
From 2014 to 2016, she led the redesign of the faculty practice program so that it was better aligned to the College of Nursing’s core mission and vision, and its strategic plan. Today, the nationally respected program is viewed as a recruitment tool to attract both faculty and students.
“We have become the resident experts in working with underserved populations in the community, and we’ve helped establish Rush as the kind of institution that stands for social justice and health equity,” Moss says. “The program also helps us build a pipeline of dedicated clinicians at Rush who were exposed to it as students and want to carry on this work.”
During the past 18 months, Moss has been working with the City of Chicago’s Department of Public Health on its COVID-19 response. Just three weeks after a request from the department, Moss and her office established the city’s only isolation shelter for people experiencing homelessness who test positive for COVID. “The reason we were able to mobilize very quickly was because we were already in the communities that were so hard hit by COVID,” Moss says.
The Office of Faculty Practice also maintains six testing and vaccination teams that visit the city’s homeless shelters, nursing homes and group homes. To date, they have performed more than 30,000 COVID tests and administered more than 10,000 vaccines.
Moss also has developed a nursing practice think tank and incubator at the College of Nursing to respond to ideas to improve health through partnerships with local organizations. When St. Leonard’s Ministries reached out to her office to inquire about tuberculosis testing for formerly incarcerated men and women, Moss did more than meet the request. Today, her office runs a full-service health center onsite at St. Leonard’s, where students also can learn how to provide community care.
Looking ahead, Moss and her office plan to establish a wellness clinic at an upcoming Loop housing project, Assemble Chicago. The clinic will be modeled after the Sue Gin Health Center, a clinic based in a mixed-income housing complex on Chicago’s West Side where nurses and nursing students provide care for residents. “Our goal with the clinic is to be open to all residents of the building as well as the public, with a focus on those experiencing homelessness in the Loop,” she says.
Reed Advances Public Health Research and Promotes Inclusion
Reed, assistant dean for generalist education at the College of Nursing, had her first job at Rush as a high school intern in the billing department. She went on to earn her BS in economics from DePaul University but decided to pursue nursing after the September 11 attacks.
In fact, caring for others is in Reed’s DNA. She comes from a long line of caregivers including her mother, a Jamaican immigrant who worked for many years as a nurse midwife and home health nurse. “I leaned back on my roots, and I knew that I wanted to give in other ways to society,” she says. “For me, that was through nursing.”
Reed, who is also an associate professor in the Department of Community, Systems and Mental Health Nursing, says her mother is extremely proud of her accomplishments, many of which were not accessible for Black nurses when her mother was practicing. “To get a job at Rush in an administrative role, to be a nurse researcher and now to be inducted into the Academy…. It’s a pathway that she never saw for herself,” Reed says. “Her pride comes from me now being able to set that path for someone else.”
Reed earned her MSN from DePaul and her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and then taught nursing for a year at DePaul before joining the faculty at Rush in 2012 to expand her research opportunities.
Her research focus is on designing interventions to improve health outcomes for Black adolescent daughters and mothers. She developed a 12-week, anti-racism, obesity prevention intervention called “Black Girls Move” for young Black women and their daughters to complete together. The pilot earned 90 percent satisfaction from participants, and Reed hopes to expand the program with additional grant funding.
In her role at Rush, Reed directs the Generalist Entry Master’s (GEM) Program, overseeing the pre- and post-licensure programs for about 340 students each year. Recently, she led the development of a required social justice and health equity curriculum for GEM students. “I’ve had the opportunity to see nursing through the lens of students and to develop a program that is inclusive of the students’ lived experiences and that incorporates their voice,” Reed says.
Additionally, she mentors nursing students on working with marginalized populations through the Public Health Nursing Scholars Program, which she developed at Rush. “Leading the programs and working with the faculty has been one of the most fulfilling roles that I could have ever asked for,” Reed says. “The College of Nursing has really set itself up for success in today’s climate. It is in wonderful shape to lead the way in working with diverse communities and providing optimal care.”
Reed also has worked as a faculty mentor for the summer internship for college students through the Center for Community Health Equity, sponsored by Rush and DePaul University. She also mentors students to be leaders in public health through the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship program.
In her role as vice president of ANA Illinois, the state’s chapter of the American Nursing Association, she sees a number of opportunities on the regional and national levels where nursing can impact social justice and equity. “For a number of years, nursing has been the most trusted profession in America,” Reed says. “We are well positioned to lead equity and justice conversations. We need to lead in that transformation. It’s time for us to act.”