Center for Health Equity: Planetary Health and Preparedness
The goals of the Center is to provide an infrastructure at UNM College of Nursing to support the vision that “every nurse is a prepared nurse”. The Center’s work is grounded in the values of health equity and social justice. The mission is to sustain and further develop the role of nursing in public health emergency preparedness and community resilience within the transdisciplinary field and movement of Planetary Health. The Center works in five areas: Practice, Education, Advocacy, Research, and Leadership to develop the knowledge, skills, capacity, policy, leadership and systems that are urgently needed to respond to developing health crises. These health crises arise from climate change, natural and human-caused disasters, environmental pollution, migration/population shifts, and the increasing health inequities from environmental and social injustices, as well as current unsustainable health systems and structures.
Five Focus Areas
Build opportunities for nurses currently in practice to support their work in this field through seminars, internships, practicums and other mentored practice experiences.
Create and support opportunities for local, state, regional, national, tribal and global disasters and humanitarian responses.
Deliver a PhD concentration in public health emergency preparedness and planetary health that is centered in the PHEF.
Support the Bachelor of Science in Nursing to Doctor of Nursing Practice (BSN-DNP) program to incorporate planetary health and preparedness content and create opportunities/mentor DNP projects and leadership in the field of planetary health and preparedness.
Partner with national nursing organizations in public health emergency preparedness to integrate the planetary health field and PHEF into curriculum and competency-based education.
Partner with undergraduate and graduate faculty and students, e.g. special topics and projects in planetary health and preparedness and other types of engagement.
Design opportunities for policy engagement at local, state, regional, national, tribal and global levels.
Organize and establish opportunities for infrastructure and collaboration on research projects that focus on social justice in nursing and public health emergency preparedness in the field of planetary health and informed through the Planetary Health Education Framework (PHEF).
Mentor leadership in this field through seminars, workshops, collaboration and connection opportunities and scholarship.
Mary Pat Couig, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
Associate Professor and Carter/Fleck Endowed Professorship