Nicole Vance is a nurse in the Pediatric ICU at UC Davis Health and part-time clinical faculty for Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. Nicole worked with Carter Todd, current President and also a founding member of the Capitol City Black Nurses Association (CCBNA) (now a Nurse Manager at Kaiser Health in Sacramento), in the pediatric ICU at UC Davis Health. She met and befriended Sheree Criner in 2018 when Sheree attended a workshop at UC Davis that Nicole helped facilitate and was in the final cohort of the MS-L program in 2019 at UC Davis with Aron King.

Once in the MS-L program, Nicole had the unique privilege of learning about liberation practices and dismantling white supremacy within oneself and healthcare from Dr. Jann Murray-García and Dr. Kupiri Ackerman-Barger. Their mentorship fundamentally changed Nicole’s, Carter’s, Sheree’s and Aron’s own anti-racism journeys and how they approached advocacy, activism and community care. Dr Ackerman-Barger was also pivotal in starting a local chapter for National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) in Sacramento.

In 2021, the nursing faculty awarded Nicole for her Excellence in Community Connection for her graduate thesis exploring the ways that hospital cleaning staff provide emotional, mental & spiritual care for patients. She later published her research with the help of her co-author and thesis advisor, Dr. Ackerman-Barger, a founding member of CCBNA.

Through her friendship with Carter and Sheree, two of the founding members of CCBNA, Nicole had the privilege of witnessing the inception and exponential growth of CCBNA. Since joining, she has assisted with public education around racism and white supremacy in nursing, student nurse advocacy and event planning. She remains humbled by the inclusivity, excellence and community care that is CCBNA’s trademark.

“What makes me really value [her] friendship in particular as a partner in change is I like [her] approach to this work because we definitely have seen it being done wrong. I like that [she is] not forceful, [she is] not coming in with ‘the cure’ and going to ‘give the answer.’ But that [she] really fill[s] in the spaces, and that shows [her] humility, and that’s the cornerstone of our work,” Sheree says of Nicole.

“Nicole for many years was helping us with all these different things. I said, ‘Why don’t you just join as a member?’ And she said, ‘Oh no, this is your space.’ And it’s like, ‘No we’re inviting you in. Come and join with us,’” says Aron. Nicole is now a member of a local chapter of the National Black Nurses Association.