The Invest in Nursing grant has had great success over the past three years in the partnership between UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing and Piedmont Health Services, Inc., with three cohorts of Student Scholars from UNC Chapel Hill, and with three cohorts of Faculty Fellows from across the State of North Carolina. This program is a time-limited grant funded opportunity, provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration, and will no longer continue programming in this current iteration after the 2021-2022 cohort year. It is our hope that other educational entities will use Invest in Nursing as a blueprint for implementing similar programming. Reach Out

Darlene Hicks, RN, BSN, DNP

North Carolina Central University

Dr. Darlene Hicks is a Lecturer in the Department of Nursing at North Carolina Central University in Durham  NC. Dr. Hicks has over 30 years of nursing experience and has been teaching in higher education since 2014. Dr. Hicks’ undergraduate degrees are in nursing. She has a Diploma in Nursing from Victoria General Hospital School of Nursing and a BSN from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her graduate degree is in nursing, with a focus in nursing education from Liberty University and her doctorate is in educational leadership from American Sentinel University.  

 Dr. Hicks’ DNP project was focused on nursing faculty job satisfaction and intent to stay in academia. She is an advocate for mentorship in nursing and has served as a mentor in the American Nurses Association’s Mentoring Program. Dr. Hicks is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society, the National League for Nurses, the American Nurses Association and the North Carolina Nurses Association.