Dr. Rachel (Rae) Walker
PhD, RN, FAAN
Season 03 - Episode 07
Dr. Rachel Walker PhD, RN, FAAN
Rae Walker (they/them) is an associate professor of nursing, Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, and the first nurse inventor to serve as an Invention Ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They direct the Nursing PhD Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and serve as an Associate Director of the IALS Center for Personalized Health Monitoring, a translational science center specializing in critical analysis and co-creation of A.I., sensors, and mHealth. Following service in the U.S. Peace Corps Mali, they completed their nursing training, PhD, Certificates in Nursing Education and Health Inequities, and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Their scholarship focuses on community-directed health innovation and digital defense against harmful tech. Their advocacy for design justice and more inclusive invention practices has been featured in magazine such as Forbes, Scientific American, Science and on NPR. They’ve consulted on policy for the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, White House, UnitedHealth, and other industries. They are an active collaborator in the Design Justice Network, co-founder of the collective Nursing Mutual Aid, and a member of the ANA Innovation Advisory Board. Their children describe them as “kind, cute…and big”.
