NYIT Dean Appointed to Board of National Black Nurses Association

Sheldon D. Fields, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, dean, NYIT School of Health Professions, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA).

Fields was appointed to serve as a director for a one-year term, through August 2018. He also is Chair of the Scholarship and Awards committee, Co-Chair of the Policy committee, and a member of the organization’s Investment and Personnel committees. The mission of the NBNA, of which Fields is a lifetime member, is to serve as the voice for black nurses and diverse populations ensuring equal access to professional development, promoting educational opportunities and improving health.

“I look forward to contributing to NBNA my many years of nursing knowledge and career experience in nursing education, research, clinical practice, administration, and health policy,” Fields said. “The future of the nursing workforce requires attracting and retaining a very diverse student population, and working with the NBNA provides a direct channel through an organization that represents the largest number of black nurses in the world.”

Prior to joining NYIT in January 2017, Fields served as chief wellness officer, dean, and professor of the Mervyn M. Dymally School of Nursing at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles (2015 – 2016). From 2011 to 2015, he was assistant dean of clinical affairs and health policy, associate professor of nursing, and co-director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program in the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences at Florida International University in Miami. He also has held faculty positions at the University of Rochester (N.Y.) School of Nursing and Binghamton University. Fields’s extensive research on HIV prevention and treatment among black men has spanned decades, resulting in an impressive record of conference and poster presentations, scholarly articles, book chapters, seminars, and invited lectures and webinars.

In addition to his academic and research accomplishments, Fields was the first male registered nurse selected for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellowship Program. As a fellow, he worked in Washington, D.C. for United States Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions—Subcommittee on Aging during the healthcare reform debates and 2009-10 passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Fields currently resides in Hollis, New York. For more information on NYIT School of Health professions, visit https://www.nyit.edu/health_professions.

About NYIT

NYIT (New York Institute of Technology) offers 90 degree programs, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees, in more than 50 fields of study, including architecture and design; arts and sciences; education; engineering and computing sciences; health professions; management; and osteopathic medicine. A non-profit independent, private institution of higher education, NYIT has 10,000 students in programs and campuses in New York (New York City and Long Island) and Arkansas as well as China, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates. NYIT sponsors 13 NCAA Division II programs.

NYIT is guided by its mission to provide career-oriented professional education, offer access to opportunity to all qualified students, and support applications-oriented research that benefits the larger world. More than 100,000 graduates have received degrees from NYIT.  

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