Joy P. Deupree, PhD, MSN, RN, WHNP-BC, FAAN
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing
What made you want to become an FNINR Ambassador?
I love policy and have been involved in state politics for more than 20 years and wanted to become more involved in federal and national politics through the FNINR program.
How long have you been an FNINR Ambassador?
3 years.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Seize every opportunity that comes your way, it may not present itself again.
What made you want to pursue a career in nursing?
My ultimate goal was to improve the lives of those who have little access to care and live in rural areas.
What book should every nurse read?
Milstead's Health Policy and Politics- A nurse's guide and Mason's Policy & Politics in Nursing and Health Care.
What has been your most interesting/surprising outcome while conducting nursing research?
You rarely have the outcomes you were expecting and often learn more about what you should do on the next round when studying the same topic.
What is a fun fact many people may not know about you?
I love to play Monopoly!
About Joy
Joy Deupree, PhD, MSN, RN, WHNP-BC, FAAN is an alumna of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellows (RWJF ENF) program (2014 – 2017), a professor at UAB School of Nursing. She has launched a Health Policy Fellowship to educate nursing faculty on the finer points of advocacy to improve health outcomes. Dr. Deupree is an internationally recognized nurse leader in the field of health literacy and served as a subject matter expert for the development and continued accreditation of the only Health Literacy Certificate program developed by the Institute of Healthcare Advancement in Irvine, California. Dr. Deupree led efforts to establish the Alabama Health Literacy Initiative in 2015 and was chair from 2015-2019 and recognized on the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention website. From 2019-2020 she was an advisor for the southeastern regional director of the Department of Health and Human Services for health literacy initiatives and for more than 25 years she has been an advocate for health policy advancements at the state level. She is an Ambassador for the Friends of the National Institutes for Nursing Research advocating for continued and increased funding with members of Congress.
Certified as a women’s health nurse practitioner since 1997, in 2006 she cofounded the Nurse Practitioner Alliance of Alabama (NPAA) and later as president from 2012-2013 championed efforts for passage of sweeping legislation that significantly reduced barriers to practice for nurse practitioners and nurse midwives in Alabama and as senior policy advisor in 2018 founded the Political Action Committee for NPAA. From 1999-2019 she was faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing (UABSON) serving in numerous leadership and administrative roles and in 2019 relocated to South Carolina where she was a professor and the Associate Dean for Practice Innovation, Partnerships and Policy and Co-Director of the Center for Nursing Leadership at the University of South Carolina College of Nursing. Returning to Alabama in 2023 currently she is the Director of Health Policy Partnerships in the Office of Clinical and Global Partnerships and a professor at the UABSON.
Dr. Deupree earned her PhD in a joint program from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Schools of Public Health and Health Education and the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, School of Human Studies in Health Behavior and Health Promotion; her MSN in 1997 in women’s health and BSN in 2014 both from UABSON.
