This quarter, Colorado Nurses Foundation continues our Legendary Leaders series by honoring Dr. Margaret Moss, the first American Indian to hold both a PhD in Nursing and a Juris Doctorate. She is an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation in North Dakota and has equal lineage in a Dakota First Nation. About 3.3 million Americans, or 1.3%, identify solely as American Indian or Alaska Native, according to a U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey population estimate. The 2022 National Nursing Workforce Survey found that only 0.4% of nurses identify as American Indian or Alaska Native. Throughout her nursing and academic career, Dr. Moss has promoted competence in the care of Indigenous people, who suffer disparities in the health care system and experience high chronic disease rates.
A nurse for 35 years, Dr. Moss has been on the faculty of Yale University, SUNY Buffalo, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Minnesota. Dr. Moss wrote the award-winning text American Indian Health and Nursing in 2015 and in 2020 published Health Equity and Nursing. She is a member of the American Academy of Nursing and the National Academy of Medicine. In 2021, Dr. Moss was one of only two Indigenous women named to the inaugural Forbes 50 Over 50 Impact List. She has been a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, staffed the US Senate Special Committee on Aging, and was a Fulbright Research Chair on Indigenous Life Across the North American Context. She speaks nationally and internationally on Indigenous health, aging, diversity, and policy issues.
Dr. Margaret Moss is an influential Indigenous nurse who has contributed to the advancement of nursing and culturally competent care. She is truly a Legendary Leader.
