This dissertation is as much a labor of agapé (a love of humanity, based on principle) as it is an act of justice, which is what good nursing should be. To the communities worldwide who’ve been made to feel alienated from science, I write in solidarity with you so that I might be a part of building a world where science, to the greatest extent possible, is and act and practice of community.

I also share this work with the long line of people (known and unknown) who make up parts of my cultural and genealogical story. For these people, who used whatever knowledge they had to soothe suffering and to impact the lives of those around them, I bare the work and title of being a nurse and scientist.

I bear it for all of those, whose stories I will never have the privilege of knowing. Those whose gifts and contributions to the practice and work we now identify as nursing that go unrecognized because of time and circumstance. I bear their legacy proudly. I take honor in being the fruit of their labor, in being a manifestation of their rage as much as their, imagination and hope.

I hope to remain relentless in the pursuit of learning and working to “do right” by y’all.