Shanell Brown is a Part Time Lecturer in the UW Bothell School of Nursing & Health Studies, where she teaches BNURS 297: An Introduction to Reproductive Justice: History, Harm, and Disruption. She earned her Master of Nursing from UW Bothell and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Seattle University, and she has practiced as a public health nurse in home visiting, maternal and child health, and community based programs across Washington. Her teaching centers reproductive justice as both a framework and a practice, asking students to trace how histories of reproductive harm shaped the systems nurses work in today. She builds courses that are accessible, discussion driven, and grounded in the knowledge students already carry from their own families and communities. She is especially interested in online learning as a way to reach students who are working, parenting, or otherwise navigating school alongside the rest of their lives.

Brown’s scholarship examines how public health systems can be redesigned to close racial inequities. As Racial Equity Director at Clark County Public Health, she leads department wide equity strategy and policy work alongside community based organizations, health systems, and cross sector partners. She is also the founder and executive director of Shades of Divinity, a Washington nonprofit advancing reproductive justice and health equity for BIPOC families. Her prior work includes co-developing anti bias training for Washington’s Maternal Mortality Review Panel, leading the SCHOLARS workforce initiative to strengthen the public health nursing pipeline, and qualitative research on Native pharmacists’ perspectives on over the counter contraception. Across this work, she is interested in what it takes to move equity commitments from statements into budgets, staffing, and daily practice.