Dana Ellis

Dana worked West Tennessee health fairs in the summers of 1973 and 1974 while a student in the School of Nursing at Vanderbilt. She served as co-director alongside George Smith who was in medical school at Meharry Medical College, an historically black medical school. Together they provided clinical leadership for the several SHC fairs conducted in West Tennessee in predominately black rural communities.

Over time, a network of clinics came together in those communities, many of which still operate to this day.

After retiring from her career in nursing administration at the University of Alabama Hospital at Birmingham, Dana has become a local and tireless leader in Moms Demand Action for gun control, voter registration drives, and the Poor People’s Campaign.

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Dana Ellis: Personal reflections

In this video clip, Dana Ellis reflects on her personal experiences as a student nurse working with community leaders in rural west Tennessee back in the early 1970s and how that work affected her career and her life. Continued

Dana Ellis on her early experience as a Nurse Practitioner

  More on Dana Ellis: More on Nursing: Continued

SHC goes to West Tennessee in 1973

Dana Ellis discusses how she got involved and her experience with the first Student Health Coalition cohort to visit communities in West Tennessee in 1973. More on Dana Ellis: More on Tennessee: Continued

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Irwin Venick

Profile: Contributed by Irwin Venick, May 2016 I arrived in Nashville, Tennessee on a hot, humid day in August 1971 not really knowing what to expect. One thing for sure was that I was not in Kansas (meaning for me,… Continued

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