Rachel K. Walker, Ph.D., RN
She/Her
I am queer and I am a nurse inventor & nurse scientist!//
I’m a nurse scientist, inventor, activist, and Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst whose scholarship is grounded in my experiences as a rural emergency medical and disaster relief worker, U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer, and bedside oncology nurse. I completed my Ph.D. and Postdoctoral Fellowship at Johns Hopkins. I’m now an Associate Director of the UMASS IALS Center for Personalized Health Monitoring (www.umass.edu/cphm). In 2018, I became the first nurse ever to be named an Invention Ambassador by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (www.inventionamb.org/ambassadors/rachel-walker/)! Our team focuses on person-directed approaches to promoting dignity, capability, and health equity. We work collaboratively with patient advocates and community leaders, clinicians, industry partners, and scholars from many disciplines – from philosophy to gender studies to chemical engineering – to develop technology, models of care, and other innovations that support symptom self-management and wellness during cancer and other types of serious illness. More details on our projects – ranging from chemotherapy detecting technology to sexual well-being kits for cancer survivors to IV fluid generating systems for disasters zones- are featured on our website www.inventRN.org. Our work has also been featured in Forbes, Scientific American, and on NPR.
Twitter @UMASSWalker