Dr. Rebecca Shasanmi Ellis is an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Nursing. Her long-term research aim is to explore the intersections of health workforce/systems development, mental health, and structural determinants to alleviate health disparities in underserved and developing communities globally.
Dr. Ellis’ background as a field-trained health professional for over 20 years (15 years post MPH), with program management and implementation science experience in research, education, health system development, and policy uniquely position her to execute and manage interprofessional programing. She is currently chair-elect of the Public Health Nursing (PHN) Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and serves on the Council of Public Health Nursing Organizations. Before her transition to Georgetown, she was an instructor at Emory University since 2018; and provided care as a registered nurse at SisterLove, Inc. (first Black women’s HIV org in the south) and Our House Health (formerly CAPN Clinics; free clinics in homeless shelters) in mental health and women’s health in Atlanta, GA.
As a mental health triage nurse and Community Resiliency Model Teacher since 2019, Dr. Ellis has taught nurses and other clinical/public health/social service providers about managing their own psychological symptoms and sharing these resiliency skills for more equitable patient centered care in facility and community-based care in medical-surgical, obstetrics, pediatrics, and mental health for patient care/education. Her research has two threads: 1) Bioethics – moral distress and mental health (anxiety/depression) experiences of healthcare workers who worked during COVID-19 response, and the relationship to structural racism (proxy chronic workplace discrimination) brings forward how healthcare organizations must respond to a broader array of structural constraints to health worker well-being and patient outcomes. 2) Health services/disparities – how patient health outcomes are impacted by social determinants and health services delivery.
Dr. Ellis has also worked on health systems readiness to provide maternal and child health services globally and domestically since 2006. Notably in 2014 working as project manager for a $9M USD grant at the World Health Organization Nigeria, addressing frontline reproductive health worker shortages during Ebola. She is also research collaborating consultant at the Center for Patient Safety at the University of Sao Paulo College of Nursing, Ribeirao Preto since 2014. Dr. Ellis is experienced at the international, regional, national, and sub-national level in public health research and education; health workforce development; program coordination and technical assistance. Her attention to partnership development and community-based participatory action has brought innovation to curriculum/training design, policy and operating procedure development within organizations she has worked for.
Dr. Ellis has taught in courses such as Social Responsibility & Bioethics, Public Health Nursing, Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Fundamentals of Public Health, Health Care Delivery in Developing Countries, Implementation Science for Global Health, and Research Methods. Dr. Ellis has a proven ability to teach, inspire, and lead program and research implementations that deliver solutions improving scope and capacity to meet organizational objectives in health systems strengthening, university education, and health promotion in communities globally.