Colette R Townsend Chambers

Colette Townsend-Chambers, DNP, RN, CHSE received her Doctorate, Master’s in Community/Public Health Nursing, and Post-Master’s Certificate in Nursing Education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She completed Robert Morris’s Certificate of Leadership in Simulation Instruction and Management program which prepared her to obtain the Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator (CHSE) certification in 2018. She has over 28 years of nursing experience that includes medical-surgical, maternal-child, and a variety of community and public health settings including hospice and school health. Ms. Townsend-Chambers is a UNC School of Nursing Lecturer and the Director of the College of Health and Human Services Learning Resource Center, which includes a state-of-the-art simulation laboratory.

Ms. Townsend-Chambers was awarded INACSL’S 2015 STAR Poster Award and INACSL’s 2016 Honorable Mention Poster Award. In 2016, she co-authored “Nursing Student’s Perspectives on Manikins of Color in Simulation Laboratories,” published in Clinical Simulation in Nursing and, in 2018, “Underrepresentation of Racial Diversity in Simulation: An international study” in Nursing Education Perspectives. Colette is a passionate simulation champion and member of INACSL, SSIH, CHSA-P, and NCNA’s Simulation Council.  In 2019 she received the CHHS Faculty Excellence Award for “Promoting Diversity and Appreciating Differences”, The Elinor Caddell School of Nursing Faculty Scholar Award, and in 2020 the DNP Excellence in Dedication to Serving Profession Award. Her DNP project entitled” Improving Public Health Clinicians’ Beliefs and Behaviors with LGBT Individuals “has garnered favorable attention from her colleagues and community partners.

Colette teaches primarily in the undergraduate nursing clinical settings, simulation lab, and has taught in the online RN-BSN program. Her passions and research interests are cultural diversity, healthcare disparities, and increasing healthcare knowledge and awareness to women, persons of color, and the LGBT communities via simulation. Colette has volunteered for faith-based mission trips to Guatemala, Jamaica, and Spain.