Connect with Top Nursing Professors on Twitter

These top nursing professors are active leaders in nursing education. They have produced major research, educational programs, and authored articles or books on foundational industry information such as patient-provider relationships and various modes of care.

A number of these professors study the intersection of civil rights and racism with medical practice and malpractice, while others specialize in areas including artificial intelligence, machine learning, feminism, midwifery, and mental health in veterans.

Several are leaders at their respective schools, while some participate in industry conferences, journals, publications, podcasts or in other activities advancing the research and application of nursing in academic and real-world environments. All are involved and engaged on Twitter.

Heather Mangino, MSN, RN
University of Saint Joseph, Connecticut

Heather Mangino is an assistant professor of nursing at the University of Saint Joseph, Connecticut. Mangino joined the School of Interdisciplinary Health and Science as an instructor in the Department of Nursing during the summer of 2018.

She is an alumna of USJ’s accelerated second-degree program, and later received her master’s degree in nursing from the University of Hartford. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Northeastern University. Mangino is a first-generation college student and lifelong learner, Professor Mangino is currently completing her doctoral degree in the Nursing Education Program at Southern Connecticut State University.

As a registered nurse with a clinical background in organ transplantation and end-stage organ disease, Professor Mangino discovered a love of nursing education early in her career, while working with students on the transplant floor. She has taught at the vocational, undergraduate, and graduate levels, and her research interests include curriculum development, stopping ableism in nursing and education, the creation of cohesive connections between the classroom and clinical settings, and best practices for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) preparation.

Mona Shattell, PhD, RN, FAAN
Johns Hopkins University, School of Nursing

Dr. Mona Shattell is a professor and the associate dean for faculty development at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She also holds a joint appointment in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering.

Dr. Shattell supports the advancement and retention of faculty while furthering an environment of diversity, inclusion, and mentorship among the school’s teachers and academic leaders. An internationally recognized expert on inpatient mental health nursing, she conducts research on patient-provider relationships, various environments of care, and underserved and vulnerable populations such as long-haul truckers.

She is an active social media user, content developer, and public thought leader. She has published op-eds in the New York Times and The Atlantic, among others. She also is an editor of the Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services and the author of more than 150 journal articles and book chapters.

Kylie M. Smith, PhD
Emory University, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Dr. Kylie M. Smith is an assistant professor and the Andrew M. Mellon Faculty Fellow for Nursing and the Humanities in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. She teaches reflective practice, ethics, and nursing history, integrating history into the curriculum and undertaking research into the history of mental health nursing.

Dr. Smith’s research is on the history of psychiatry, the role of nurses, and the impact of the Civil Rights Act on psychiatric practices. She was awarded a BA (honors) in English and history and a PhD in history from the University of Wollongong in Australia.

Before coming to Emory, Dr. Smith worked in the School of Nursing at the University of Wollongong where she researched mental health nursing history and taught reflective practice. She has also worked in multicultural HIV/AIDS health promotion in Sydney, Australia and studied scriptwriting at the Australian Film Television and Radio School.

In 2014, Dr. Smith was awarded the Karen Buhler-Wilkerson Fellowship at the Barbara Bates Centre for the Study of the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently working on a project which explores the origins of global mental health nursing practice in the context of the Cold War. This project has also been awarded funds from the Rockefeller Archives Centre and the American Association for the History of Nursing.

One of her recent publications is a book entitled Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing, which was published by Rutgers University Press in 2019. Her current research project entitled “Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South” examines the impact of the Civil Rights Act on the segregation practices of large state psychiatric hospitals in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Ali R. Tayyeb, PhD, RN, NPD-BC, PHN
California State University, Los Angeles, Patricia A. Chin School of Nursing

Dr. Ali R. Tayyeb is an assistant professor at the Patricia A. Chin School of Nursing, Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services, California State University, Los Angeles. He is a Jonas Nursing & Veterans Healthcare Scholar, currently serves on the National JNVH Alumni Advisory Council and as the Chair of the Cal State LA Nursing Alumni Network.

Beyond his academic work, he is also the creator and host of the RN-Mentor podcast, which aims to bring today’s nursing leaders to listeners and archive the experiences of leaders in various settings in the nursing profession.

Dr. Tayyeb is a double alum of California State University, Los Angeles, and a United States Navy Veteran, having served as a United States Navy Fleet Marine Force Corpsman with Naval Medical Center San Diego, 1st Marine Division, and 3rd Marine Division.

After his military service, Dr. Tayyeb pursued his career as a registered nurse, earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from California State University, Los Angeles and his PhD from the University of San Diego. Dr. Tayyeb has his nursing license and public health nurse certificate through the California State Board of Registered Nursing and is nationally certified as a Nursing Professional Development Specialist through the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

Dr. Tayyeb’s experiences in the healthcare field include combat trauma, emergency medicine, education, human patient simulation, professional development, veterans’ healthcare, and policy.

Dr. Tayyeb’s research interests in veterans-related research include transition, post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, pain, suicide, family environment, disenfranchisement, policy, advocacy, culture, veteran benefits, and reintegration.

Rachel Walker, PhD, RN
University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Nursing

Rachel Walker is an associate professor and director of the PhD program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Nursing, where they teach across the undergraduate and doctoral curricula, with a special focus on innovation, measurement, and qualitative methods.

Their research focuses primarily on nursing invention, design justice, and the intersections of emergent technologies such as AI/machine learning and community. Their research and innovations have been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the Oncology Nursing Foundation, and the Sigma Foundation for Nursing.

Recent features about their activism and nurse inventions involving sensors such as computational eyeglasses, microfluidics, radar-based sensing, accelerometers and nanotechnology, have appeared in magazines such as Forbes and Scientific American, on NPR and Facebook Live, and in the journal Science.

Dr. Walker is the first nurse to be named an official Invention Ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Walker is an associate director of the UMass Center for Health and Human Performance—a multidisciplinary translational science center that specializes in developing sensors, wearables, and digital health technology.

They earned their PhD in nursing, certificates in health disparities research and nursing education, and completed their postdoctoral fellowship in innovation for aging and translational science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Their clinical background includes oncology nursing, patient navigation, and experience in rural emergency response, humanitarian disaster relief, and wilderness search and rescue. They also served as a U.S. Peace Corps-Mali Volunteer.

They advise the American Nurses Association on the Innovation Advisory Board and serve on the Steering Committee of the UMASS Center for Community Health Equity Research (CCHER) and is a member of the Design Justice Network. Dr. Walker is an associate editor of the journal Oncology Nursing Forum, where they founded the Critical Perspectives Department that addresses issues of equity and justice within the nursing profession and its scholarship through the lens of critical theory and lived experience.

In 2020, they were recognized with the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association Nursing Section’s Global Hero Award, for their efforts as co-founder of the collective, Nursing Mutual Aid.

Jess Dillard-Wright, PhD, MA, RN, CNM
Augusta University, College of Nursing

An assistant professor at Augusta University’s Department of Physiological and Technological Nursing in the school’s College of Nursing, Dr. Jess Dillard-Wright is a nursing instructor with expertise in emergency room RN and midwifery. She also holds the position of director in the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Augusta University’s College of Nursing.

Dr. Dillard-Wright has published articles and findings on the intellectual history of nursing and feminism and speaks at industry conferences. She has also been a special guest on podcast shows, such as RN-Mentor, which aims to bring today’s nursing leaders to listeners and archive the experiences of leaders in various settings in the nursing profession.

• These professors are active and engaged on Twitter.
• The number of followers was given weight, as was how engaged the professor is on campus, in their field, and on Twitter.
• Given the nature of the nursing field and varied work of nursing academics, full professors, associates, assistants, and other instructors were included.
• The list is focused on professors at U.S. institutions.