Keynote speakers

S. Raquel Ramos, PhD, MBA, MSN, FNP, FNYAM, FAHA
Associate Professor, Yale University School of Nursing

Dr. S. Raquel Ramos is an associate professor at the Yale University School of Nursing and appointed as associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Ramos has over a decade of direct patient care experience as a nurse clinician in the areas of critical care, interventional cardiology, LGBTQ+ health, long-term care, and HIV clinical research as a protocol nurse for The Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS), the longest running study on the life course of HIV in gay and bisexual men.
 
Dr. Ramos’ program of research examines how user-centered design and technology-driven, behavioral interventions can enhance cardiovascular health equity in sexual minority men of color with HIV and at risk of HIV-related comorbid conditions. As an NIH-funded researcher, Dr. Ramos pioneers innovation in prevention of HIV-related cardiovascular health inequities in Black and Latinx sexual minoritized men, a population that has been underserved in these areas for decades. Her current study is testing the feasibility and acceptability of a virtual environment as cardiovascular disease prevention education.
 
Dr. Ramos is an associate editor for the Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (JANAC), a section editor for the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), and serves on the editorial board for Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Ramos is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Heart Association. In 2016, she received the 40 Under 40 Leader in Health Award from The National Minority Quality Forum. In 2023, Dr. Ramos was awarded the Equity-minded Nurse Researcher Award by the AARP, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and co-sponsor American Academy of Nursing.
 
Dr. Ramos earned her BSN, MSN and MBA from Purdue University. She earned her PhD from Columbia University and was a Postdoctoral Associate at the Yale School of Nursing.


Schenita Davis Randolph, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
Associate Professor, Duke University School of Nursing

Dr. Randolph is an Associate Professor at the Duke University School of Nursing and has been a registered nurse for over 25 years. She is advancing nursing science by using community and stakeholder engagement to address the root causes of sexual health inequities for Black male adolescents and women. Her work has received national attention in the popular media and has been supported by public and private funders. She has publications in peer-reviewed journals that highlight population health and community and stakeholder engagement in education and research.

From 2016-21, Dr. Randolph was co-director of the Community Engagement and Dissemination Core at the Duke Center for REACH Equity, a NIMHD-funded health disparities research center, where she provided consultations and trainings to career development scholars and researchers on community engagement principles and evidence-based strategies to better engage community stakeholders in research projects. Dr. Randolph has provided technical consultations to researchers for numerous clinical trials that have increased participation in community engaged research and vulnerable populations.

Dr. Randolph is also the Founding Director and Principal Investigator of the HEEAT Lab (Addressing Health Disparities through Engagement, Equity, Advocacy, and Trust), which consists of an interdisciplinary team of researchers, clinicians, entrepreneurs and community members who are dedicated to developing culturally and socially relevant interventions that will advance health equity and improve health outcomes for minoritized communities.