Edilma L. Yearwood, MA '77

Edilma L. Yearwood, MA’ 77, was recognized with the Estelle Osborne Award in 2019. Yearwood, PhD, RN, PMHCNS-BC, FAAN, is a Professor of Nursing at Georgetown University School of Nursing and Program Director of the PhD in Nursing program, which launched in August 2025. She teaches psychiatric-mental health nursing to pre-licensure students and will be teaching Health Equity and Qualitative Research Methods in the PhD program. 

Dr. Yearwood is an ANCC certified Clinical Nurse Specialist in Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing with over 40 years of experience. She is a member of the American Academy of Nursing (since 2007), Past President of the International Society of Psychiatric Nurses (ISPN), and incoming President of the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice.  She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Archives of Psychiatric Nursing. She earned her PhD in nursing from Adelphi University.

Q: What do you believe is Estelle Osborne's legacy?

A: The more I learned about her and her legacy, I found that she came up at a time when there were these organizations and institutions that perpetuated inequities and lack of access, including within nursing education and the healthcare workforce. So I think, fearless is a good word to use, because she was bold - and she was especially bold for that time.

Q: How did your experience at NYU Meyers shape your career and your view of healthcare?

A: I wasn’t born in this country, and I earned my baccalaureate and then my master's degrees at two different institutions that helped to shape who I am today. Because of my academic abilities, I was frequently either the only person of color in class or one of a few people of color in most classes. So, both at my undergraduate, which was from the University of Connecticut, and also at NYU - even though there was more diversity at NYU when I got there -  both of those experiences, plus being in the clinical setting, gave me a perspective of and I use the word “just” practices and justice. It gave me a perspective of the need to fight for equity and the need to champion either patients or colleagues or students who are not treated the same way.

Q: What piece of advice would you give to a student about to graduate from NYU Meyers?

A: Speak up and speak out. I still believe very strongly that we have a duty to protect everybody, and that means everybody. We have to have a moral compass, it is critical that we do the right thing. So, “Speak up and Speak out” would be my advice to students, because they're going to see so many different things in the clinical arena or in the research area or in a classroom. I would encourage them to not be quiet, not be passive, not to quietly support bad behavior, but to speak out when injustices occur and advocate for those who are afraid to speak out.

Q: What was your most challenging or difficult day as a nurse?

A: I have two. One was when I was working as a new grad in a PICU, a pediatric intensive care unit, and we had a baby who came in from a fresh cardiac procedure. The baby was probably about six months old, and we were not able to save that baby that night. And that haunts me. You know, it's the one thing  that sticks with you. I'm a child and adolescent psych nurse, and I love kids. I love adolescents. The valiant effort we made to keep that child alive, it just didn't work that night. So that haunts me. The other thing that I think about a lot is here at my current job. I started here at Georgetown in 2002.  I remember one day a colleague of mine basically used the phrase, “I don't see color” while talking with me. I left her office thinking, “Wait a minute. Why doesn't that feel right?” And I wrote an editorial about it, because it didn't feel right, and it wasn't right that she said that. Because if you basically tell people I don't see color, you're basically saying “I don't see you.” We all come with a variety of different pieces of ourselves, and what we should do is embrace all the pieces that we see in front of us. When somebody says that, I think it discounts their experience, it discounts them as an individual, and I share that one in the classroom with my students. I say to the students: “Please don't tell people you don't see color. Color is beautiful. We have different ranges of colors, and they're all wonderful.”

Q: What barriers or challenges do you still face as a nurse of color, and how have things evolved?

 

A: Personally, I have evolved, which is good. I used to be incredibly shy, reluctant to speak up. And I think what's clear to me is that we still have a lot of challenges in nursing and lots of barriers. What has evolved in me as a person is I speak up now. I call it out. I have to call it out. My new mantra is, “If you don't say something, you're basically colluding with the problem.” I think there's still a lot of barriers. I know that sometimes even with teaching students - I find they question me more than I see them questioning my peers. And so, there's still that bias that does exist - Does this black woman know enough to teach me this stuff? And so, I still see that. The questions and behaviors they exhibit seem to come from a place of bias and privilege, to this day, I still see and experience some of that. And I just tend to call it out. I have to find a way to not be as reactive and to do it in a softer way, but I do point it out when I see it. And then there’s micromanagement - that's my other new mantra lately. I tell some of my colleagues, “Please don't micromanage me, it is very disrespectful.”

Q: Can you share a favorite memory or piece of advice from your time at NYU?

A: I knew exactly the right answer for this question. When I first went to NYU as a Master's student, one of the teachers I had was Martha Rogers. I distinctly remember her being up on the stage in a fur coat, and at the time you could smoke, and she was smoking away. And I thought, “Wow, this woman is a little off, right?” And honestly, I left NYU, and I took myself to Columbia, and I wanted to transfer, because I didn't think NYU was the place for me. And something stopped me, and I went back, and I actually listened better to what Martha Rogers was saying. And honestly, I tell people now I use her every single day. I didn't realize the impact she was having on us as students until I tried to switch schools. But now I use her lessons, her message, her brilliant insights every day. I use her theory all the time. It influences everything I do right now. Also, I loved when she talked about mutual, simultaneous interaction, and how something can be happening across the room, and you don't see the impact on you, but it does have an impact on you. Because we’re all in the same environment, you may not see it but there is an energy exchange that influences people and things. I'm really glad I didn't switch schools, because her theory, her experience, her creativity, really, really, still resonates with me and I am grateful for that and lucky to have had the experience of her wisdom.