IMPACT is a diverse group of healthcare workers of all disciplines who believe it’s time to prioritize people over profit. We’re ready to carefully and intentionally dismantle the current system and build a sustainable one that does not bankrupt patients but instead provides accessible, equitable, and high-quality care for all.
Abby has been a nurse since 2007. She has proudly worked as a CNA and LPN before receiving her BSN. Abby ended her bedside career after working in a Manhattan COVID ICU. During this time, Abby’s enthusiasm for advocacy flourished, leading her to a career in labor and healthcare reform and ultimately founding founding IMPACT in Healthcare.
Abby has also worked as an SEIU Representative / Organizer / Union Education Coordinator, teaching nurses and healthcare professionals the tools to propel their advocacy. She is currently enrolled in a master’s degree in healthcare policy to further her fight for both Healthcare Workers and Patients.
Abby is passionate about labor rights, income equality, intersectional feminism, LGBTQIA+ liberation, and racial justice.
Miriam is a med/surg nurse and has previously worked in neuro and psych. She has been working as a nurse for over five years, and has been in healthcare in some capacity for ten plus years. Miriam is passionate about education and research and is currently pursuing a PhD in nursing with an aim to work in healthcare policy.
Miriam has two cats, one is diabetic and one is a gremlin. She loves animals and volunteers in the animal rescue world when she has the time.
Heather is a med/surg nurse currently completing her master’s degree in nursing and healthcare education. She has worked in healthcare for over eight years, starting her career at the front desk of an orthopedics office. Heather has seen how difficult it is to access timely and affordable healthcare across the US. She hopes to provide patients and healthcare workers the tools they need to fight for a better system. In her free time, Heather enjoys traveling, hiking, gardening and spending time outdoors.
Hakeem Shoola is a Doctoral Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP) graduate from Columbia University School of Nursing (CUSON), with an additional Master of Science in Nursing as an Oncology Nurse Practitioner. Hakeem is also a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing’s (UT Austin-SON) Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program and a CUSON Pathways to Leadership and Advancement in Nursing (PLAN) scholar.
Hakeem is a nursing and student leader, and has accumulated over 8 years of professional clinical and academic experience in critical care and oncology combined--ranging from research, bone marrow transplant (BMT), cardiac critical care, to serving in acute care facilities, and wound care. Furthermore, Hakeem has national and international experience ranging from podium presentations, workshops, and serving on a multitude of student panels. Hakeem also participates in local and national activism including nursing strikes, protest, and creates, delineates, and disseminates information through various channels and modalities.
Currently, Hakeem works as a Wound Care Nurse Practitioner, and as a nursing leader has had the privilege to manage patients, oversee patient-care operations, delegate staff responsibilities, evaluate performances, counsel employees, implement quality improvement nurse-led interventions, advocate for social justice, form, lead, and manage research teams, and teach master’s and doctoral students.
Amina is a registered nurse with a variety of experience, spending most of her practice in med/surg, case management, and home health. She’s worked in healthcare for 12+ years, starting as an EMT and working her way to her RN, just recently graduating with her BSN. She is also trained as an herbalist and a member of the AHNA. She is passionate about nurse advocacy, activism, and integrative health practices. In her hometown, she works with the homeless and spends time working to support her family and her community. She hopes to work for the AACN someday, changing the policies that accredit clinical education to represent a more integrative mindset, the needs of the students, staff, and the healthcare system. She plans to get her MSN and use it by helping build a better healthcare system that engages the mind, body and spirit, for those that experience and work within the healthcare system.
Anna McDaniel is an experienced Acute Care Nurse Practitioner in a busy ICU at an urban academic medical center. Prior to her current role, Anna worked as a registered nurse in critical care and neurosciences. Other career paths have included dancing ballet, teaching high school Latin and chemistry, and slinging coffee in nearly every shop in the metro area.
Aside from a variety of other degrees, Anna holds a Doctorate in Nursing Practice from UTHSC and a BSN from Union University. She is certified as both a critical care nurse and a nurse practitioner through the AACN.
A committed activist in the Southern tradition, Anna has made signs, written letters, and marched in the street for abortion access, LGBTQ and disability rights, Black Lives, environmental preservation, and sanitation workers. She has a particular interest in the role of institutional betrayal and courage in a variety of settings, particularly healthcare.However, her greatest act of protest is enjoying her life. She grows pollinator food, misuses power tools, hikes slowly and runs slower with her three Border Collies on herbicide-free acreage in Mississippi.
Amy has been working in healthcare since 2011 as an OR/ICU tech, doula, and ICU nurse. She currently lives in Philadelphia and recently transitioned to her new role as a CRNA. She has been engaged in activism since age 6 (her mom took her to a Free Tibet protest) and firmly believes that nurse leaders will shape the future of healthcare. Her favorite hobbies are making scrub caps, playing video games, riding her bike, and exploring new places. Mr. Oswald is her adopted stray dog and the love of her life.
Topi, RN, BSN, MPH, always wanted to work in health care. The daughter of a nurse, Topi grew up in Kenya, and moved to Ohio as a teenager. In college, she studied biochemistry at Kent State University, where she later earned a master’s in public health. After graduate school, Topi moved to Boston where she pursued her BSN at MCPHS-Boston. She is now a med/surg RN, hoping to pursue higher education in the near future.
Erin is a clinical social worker with a strong passion for advocacy and organizing for a more equitable healthcare system. Erin has a background in community mental health and is currently working as a school social worker with high school students and their families. Erin’s experience supporting clients as they navigate structural barriers in accessing affordable and high quality healthcare sparked a shift towards policy work. Erin plans to continue providing part-time mental health care to adolescents as she enters a career in healthcare policy. Outside of her social work career and advocacy work, Erin spends much of her time traveling, outdoors, and with her rescue dog, Granite.