Welcomed back to Ohio, ANA Past President Ernie Grant accepted the invitation to be the keynote speaker at the Inaugural Annual Meeting in September. Joining us for the Friday night celebration and Saturday meeting he will share multiple perspectives while serving as ANA President. His leadership was instrumental in the creation of the National Commission on Racism. Recognizing the tremendous opportunities in Ohio, Dr. Grant will address “Putting the Fire Back in Your Organization”.
Dr. Grant has more than 30 years of nursing experience and is an internationally recognized burn-care and fire-safety expert. He previously served as the burn outreach coordinator for the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center at University of North Carolina (UNC) Hospitals in Chapel Hill. In this role, Dr. Grant oversaw burn education for physicians, nurses, and other allied health care personnel and ran the center’s nationally acclaimed burn prevention program. Dr. Grant also serves as adjunct faculty for the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing, where he works with undergraduate and graduate nursing students in the classroom and clinical settings.
Dr. Grant is frequently sought out for his expertise as a clinician and educator. In addition to being a prolific speaker, he has conducted numerous burn-education courses with various branches of the U.S. military in preparation for troops’ deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2002, President George W. Bush presented Dr. Grant with a Nurse of the Year Award for his work treating burn victims from the World Trade Center site. In 2013, Dr. Grant received the B.T. Fowler Lifetime Achievement Award from the North Carolina Fire and Life Safety Education Council.
An active participant in professional organizations, Dr. Grant is a past chair of the National Fire Protection Association board of directors and served as second vice president of the American Burn Association board of trustees. He also holds memberships in Sigma Theta Tau and Chi Eta Phi. Dr. Grant served as president of the North Carolina Nurses Association from 2009-11. In 2002, ANA honored Dr. Grant with the Honorary Nursing Practice Award for his contributions to the advancement of nursing practice through strength of character, commitment, and competence.
At the end of his ANA Presidency, Dr, Grant was appointed Interim Vice Dean for DEI at the Duke School of Nursing. He continues to lead national strategies to examine and end the issue of racism within nursing with a focus on the impact on nurses, patients, communities, and health care systems. As a founding member of the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing, Dr. Grant’s leadership is making a difference and helping to confront individual and systemic racism.
Dr. Grant holds a BSN degree from North Carolina Central University and MSN and PhD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2014. He is the first man to be elected to the office of president of the American Nurses Association.
