Kenya Beard, chief nursing officer and inaugural dean of the School of Nursing at Mercy University in Dobbs Ferry, New York, has received the Mary Elizabeth Carnegie Leadership Award from the American Academy of Nursing. The award recognizes an academy fellow whose significant and sustained contributions have advanced the organization’s core values of equity, diversity, and inclusivity in nursing and healthcare.
A nationally recognized leader in heath equity, policy, and nursing education, Dr. Beard has overseen initiatives such as the National Black Nurse Association’s National Academy for Diversity Leaders in Nursing and Mercy University’s Health Equity Influencer Program. She has co-produced healthcare disparity segments on WBAI-FM for an audience of some 400,000 listeners. She is also featured in the documentary Everybody’s Work: Healing What Hurts Us All, where she discusses nursing’s power to create equity-driven systems.
In addition to her work at Mercy University, Dr. Beard teaches transformational leadership development courses at the Harvard Macy Institute. She previously served as chair of the New York State Board of Nursing and currently serves on the editorial board for the American Journal of Nursing.
Dr. Beard earned her associate’s degree in nursing from Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing in New York City, a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Excelsior College in Albany, a master’s degree in adult nurse practitioner from Stony Brook University in New York, and doctorate in educational administration from Dowling College in Oakdale, New York.