Robert and Kathleen Scanlon Endowed Chair in Values Based Health Care
Georgetown University
Annandale, VA
As the Robert and Kathleen Scanlon Endowed Chair for Values Based Health Care, Dr. Anderko supports the integration of Georgetown University's School of Nursing and Health Studies' values of equity, respect for diversity, excellence, social justice and value of the common good into research, teaching, service, and practice initiatives. She works in partership with Georgetown's Center for Social Justice, the State and Federal Center for Climate Change at the Georgetown Law Center, the Georgetown University Medical Center, and the O'Neill Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, to conduct research and to develop population-based strategies to reduce health disparities and encourage health equity in underserved communities. Dr. Anderko is a forner member of the Environmental Protection Agency's Childrens Health Protection Advisory Committee (a federal advisory committee) and founding member of Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment. She has spearheaded nursing education, practice, advocacy, and research programs on children's environmental health, receiving the Charlotte Brody award for environmental advocacy in 2009. She has developed a number of environmental health nursing courses and professional development workshops, reaching over 800 nurses to date. In addition, she has worked in partnership with state and local health agencies such as the Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) program to screen for environmental toxins and conducted community-based participatory research to study the impact of environmental toxins on the growth and development of children. Her work in environmental health has recently expanded to include the use of social media to more widely disseminate environmental health messages to the general public. In 2013 Dr. Anderko was honored by the White House with the Champions of Change Award in Climate Change and Public Health in 2013. This year, Dr. Anderko was awarded the Alumni of the Year Award for the College of Health and Human Services at Northern Illinois University and by Nurse.com for Advancing and Leading the Nursing Profession.