Carol Etherington, a nurse who has traveled the country and the world assisting people devastated by war, natural disasters and violence for three decades, will speak about her experiences and her perspective on global health April 8 at 5:30 p.m. in the Chapel.
Etherington, the associate director of Community Health Initiatives and an associate nursing professor at Vanderbilt University, will close out the Voices from the Vanguard speaker series. The lecture is open free to the public.
As a nurse, Etherington has worked with traumatized populations in urban and rural areas around the world. She first served on an international emergency medical team in the aftermath of the Pol Pot genocide. Since 1996, she has worked with Doctors without Borders in Bosnia, Poland, Honduras, Tajikistan, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Angola and in the Darfur refugee camps of Chad.
She established one of the first police-based counseling programs in the nation within the Nashville metropolitan police department and has worked throughout the U.S. during times of natural and manmade disasters including earthquakes, hurricanes and school shootings. She also served in New York after Sept. 11.
In the classroom, Etherington challenges students and providers from across the disciplines to develop a grounded and realistic perspective on global health. She advocates for these populations and strongly promotes the concept that health, mental health, human rights and human dignity are inextricably linked.
