By Jennifer Lollar
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing Alumna Grace Grau, DNP, ACNP-BC, CRNP, AACC (DNP 2015) has been elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses for a two-year term. Her first assignment is as Chair of the Policy & Advocacy Committee where she will focus on nursing advocacy and elevating the voice of NAHN in Washington, D.C.
Grau retired from full-time teaching in the School as an Assistant Professor in December 2021. She is the founding president of the Alabama Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses and is the 2021 NAHN Janie Menchaca Wilson Leadership Award recipient for her leadership and dedication to nursing education and the community.
“I am honored to have the trust of my NAHN colleagues to continue the work of our predecessors,” Grau said. “My priority goals include providing more support to our chapters to enable the transformation of advocacy into action. We want to increase our public presence in matters that affect environments such as provider diversity, racial justice and health equity, and the impact of racism on nurses, other healthcare workers and the patients we serve. In this critical nursing shortage, NAHN is ready to lead and make an impact on restoring a nursing workforce that is culturally competent, diverse, and able to care for the nation and beyond.”
Grau, who is returning to the School part-time to work on initiatives with the School’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion also served as principal investigator for five NIH Sprint Grants for the All of Us research program, which, once complete, will be one of the most diverse health portfolio databases in history.
In addition to her work as a faculty member, Grau is an advocate for women’s heart health, is a board-certified acute care nurse practitioner and prior to her retirement, also held an appointment with UAB Medicine as a nurse practitioner in the Department of CVD/Interventional Cardiology. She currently has a volunteer practice at Community of Hope Health Clinic in Pelham.