Dr. Shaquita A. Starks, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Emory University in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. As faculty, she teaches in the undergraduate and graduate programs. She currently practices at the Center for Black Women’s Wellness in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Starks serves as a mentor for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) through the American Nurses Association’s Minority Fellowship Program and serves as a committee member for the SAMHSA Interdisciplinary Minority Fellowship Program. She is active within her specialty organizations and serves as a committee member for the International Society or Psychiatric Nurses’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She has 23 years of experience as a professional nurse, 14 years of which has involved practice as an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN). As an APRN, she holds certifications as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (across the life span) and a Family Nurse Practitioner. Dr. Starks’ research interests include caregiver health and quality of life and the impact of toxic stress and trauma on health disparities among ethnic minority groups, especially African Americans. She has published her research Issues in Mental Health Nursing and the Western Journal of Nursing Research. She has also published other scholarly works in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Advanced Nursing, the Journal of Clinical Nursing, and Nursing Clinics of North America, and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Education
Ph.D. Nursing Science, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Post-Master’s Family Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, University of Mississippi Medical Center
MSN Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center
BSN Nursing, The University of Tennessee
