BROOKINGS – Addressing social justice.

Those three words on a South Dakota State University College of Nursing advertisement caught Debra Anderson’s attention. Several months later, she has that as one of her goals as the new associate dean of research following a national search.

Addressing social justice, or fair treatment of populations regardless of economic status, age, ethnicity, citizenship, disability or sexual orientation, has been called one of the responsibilities of the nursing profession.

“The core of public health nursing is social justice,” said Anderson, who started at State in May after serving as an associate professor and director of work-life engagement at the University of Kentucky. “It’s part of the public health concept that was engrained in me as a kid by my mom (Jean). She was a nursing assistant. She wanted to be a nurse but got married and had five kids instead.”

Anderson worked in public health at the Marion County Health Department in Indianapolis before moving into academia. She has been an assistant or associate professor at the Intercollegiate Center for Nursing Education in Spokane, Washington, the University of Portland and Washington State University. She was a postdoctoral scholar in family nursing at Oregon Health Sciences University.

“I’m excited about joining the college’s work in outreach activities with the state’s tribes,” Anderson said. “I’d like to build on the successes already at the College of Nursing. There is a thriving organizational structure in place here and the graduate and research faculty have a desire to engage in research to improve the health of South Dakotans. I’d like to see us increase our efforts in interventional research to make healthy changes that work in people’s lives.”

She earned an associate degree in nursing from Vincennes University, a bachelor’s degree from Indiana Central University, a master’s degree from Indiana University and her doctorate from Oregon Health Sciences University. Anderson and her husband, Bill Cooper, have three young adult children.

Courtesy photo