SPARTAN SPOTLIGHT
Raising the Bar for Equality and Justice
By Brett Bralley
San José State University's newest visionary for change is redefining diversity, equity and inclusion in health sciences education and beyond.
When Michelle Hampton, associate professor of nursing at San José State University, first set foot on campus in 2018, she was in awe of the statue portraying Tommie Smith, ’69 Social Science, ’05 Honorary Doctorate; and John Carlos, ’05 Honorary Doctorate.
The mosaic sculpture depicts the historical gestures of the two Black athletes and San José State alumni during the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. As they received their gold and bronze medals, respectively, for the 200-meter dash, Smith and Carlos raised their fists during the playing of the U.S. national anthem in solidarity with their fellow Black Americans facing injustice and inequality back home.*
“As a former runner and a Black woman, that statue made me feel like SJSU might be where I belonged,” Hampton shared.
“So many experiences we have in higher education can make us feel excluded, as if we’re not valued or seen. It’s important to have symbols like this to remind us that in the history of this institution, we stood for equality and justice.”
Hampton joined the SJSU College of Health and Human Sciences (CHHS), where she helped to jumpstart the Doctor of Nursing Program within the college’s Valley Foundation School of Nursing. Now she’s taken on a new role: In July, she was named the college’s inaugural special director of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Ever since that first day on campus, Hampton has helped the university to continue to stand for equality and justice — whether through her research on how Black students are systematically excluded during nursing school admissions processes, or through her efforts to promote antiracism on campus and beyond.
Michelle Hampton, associate professor of nursing, as a freshman at the University of Southern California competing at the 1989 Pac-10 championship.
Hampton in front of San José State’s statue portraying the historic gestures of Tommie Smith, ’69 Social Science, ’05 Honorary Doctorate; and John Carlos, ’05 Honorary Doctorate. Photo: Robert C. Bain
Research for equality
Not long after Hampton joined SJSU, she volunteered to serve on the admissions review committee for the nursing school.
“There were these checklists,” she explained. “We’d check off if applicants had the grades, the test scores, if they completed all their prerequisites. But there were no references required, no consideration of extracurriculars. I felt paralyzed. I didn’t know anything about these students based on this information. It was just numbers.”
That prompted her to investigate how that approach to admissions could be problematic. She learned that despite Black Americans making up 13.4% of the U.S. population, they only comprise 10% of the country’s registered nurses (RN) — with the largest gaps appearing in Southern states. She also took a deep dive into how systemic racism and education intertwine.
“I learned a lot about what goes on in elementary and high school education for Black students that can affect readiness for college, especially with indicators like GPA and test scores.”
She theorized that simply relying on numbers was excluding students who might have the passion, talent and smarts for nursing school — but might not meet the academic criteria alone.
After examining more than 1,500 nursing schools’ admissions criteria across the country, Hampton found that about 50% of programs were relying only on academics. Even those programs that were using what she called a “holistic” approach — that is, one that considers factors beyond academic performance, including references and extracurricular experience — still leaned heavily on the numbers.
What’s more, she found that several programs required additional barriers to admission, including background checks, health insurance requirements and drug screenings.
“The expense of those requirements, as well as the disproportionate impact of policing in schools, could disadvantage Black students in nursing program admissions,” Hampton concluded in her findings, which were published in the journal Nurse Educator in July. “Access to an RN education must be improved.”
Teaching antiracism to others
Before Hampton stepped into her new role with CHHS, she was appointed a spring 2021 faculty fellow for the university’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEI) by Kathleen Wong(Lau), SJSU’s chief diversity officer.
As part of her appointment, Hampton collaborated with a team of CHHS faculty to produce two antiracism-themed programs, the first — the Antiracism Reprogramming in Health Professions Education — was a workshop held in April, attended by 60 other faculty from other higher education institutions in California and beyond.
The second was the four-week Antiracist Action Summer Institute for educators in nursing, social work, kinesiology, public health and occupational therapy. The curriculum, developed by Hampton and the CHHS faculty team, included antiracist teaching strategies, discussions about race and personal experiences, exercises for mindfulness and methods for inclusivity. And, of course, it dove into the best ways to approach admissions procedures.
“I want DEI to be so routine that it’s like brushing our teeth.”
— Michelle Hampton
“Throughout the process, Dr. Hampton was visionary, collaborative and inclusive,” said Wong(Lau).
“She was able to help the institute team stay focused on a framework of diversity and systemic equity across the scope of health and human sciences higher education, including difficult topics such as graduate and professional admissions, criteria for antiracist textbook content, frameworks for teaching and practice, and numerous other areas.”
As Hampton’s fellowship came to a close, she approached Wong(Lau) to see if there was a way her work could continue. And that was when Audrey Shillington, dean of CHHS, stepped in.
When Shillington was hired in May 2020, she conducted a listening tour of her college — speaking with faculty, staff and students to learn what was important to them. An area of great importance, she found, was health equity and social justice. So she decided to create a position dedicated to DEI — and knew Hampton was the right person for the job.
“Michelle will bring innovative ideas and initiatives that will help us think and work differently, foster a more inclusive and equitable workplace, and make an impact on the stakeholders and communities we serve,” Shillington said.
“I am looking for ways we can assure that DEI is interwoven in all we do.”
Though Hampton is still identifying the most pressing DEI needs within the college, she said the best part about stepping into a new role “is to be part of its development and evolution. It’s exciting to be part of growing our DEI infrastructure at CHHS and SJSU.”
She said the creation of SJSU’s ODEI was a great start, and “this role in CHHS is an opportunity to make even more progress by building a team of representatives who are engaged in the work throughout the university, in every college and every department.”
Hampton envisions DEI committees established throughout CHHS that would work to build strategic plans, set goals and evaluate progress — and repeat the process as an ongoing cycle.
“I want to help us move away from thinking that DEI is a special consideration, or that we need to squeeze this special thing into an already packed schedule, or that it’s a curriculum afterthought. I want DEI to be so routine that it’s like brushing our teeth.”
“Throughout the process, Dr. Hampton was visionary, collaborative and inclusive.”
— Kathleen Wong(Lau)
A passion for transformation
Hampton said a career in nursing was “a lucky accident.” She didn’t even consider the field until after she earned her bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Southern California, where she also ran track.
She found herself in a sales job after graduation — and hated it. While exploring other career options, she noticed there were many opportunities for nurses, so she decided to explore that pathway.
That was how she found her calling. Her bachelor’s degree laid the groundwork for her interest in mental health in nursing as she earned her master’s and Ph.D. from University of California, San Francisco.
Now, she hopes to make a lasting impact in the field. And she said that San José State is the place to do it.
“I’m most interested in advancing initiatives that will improve access to affordable, health professional education within SJSU and even within the California State University (CSU) system,” Hampton said.
“One of the reasons health professional education is so competitive is that it is a great career,” she continued. “It’s intellectually stimulating and requires social skills, compassion and a desire to provide service to others.”
That’s why it’s important that CSU campuses continue to support these programs, and support students who have the interest and ability to explore those career paths, she said.
“It not only serves the student who will benefit from a rewarding career and financial security, but also serves the community by aiding in the training of qualified providers. If our student populations reflect the diversity of our state’s population, we can make significant progress toward reducing health disparities in California.”
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*The actions of Smith and Carlos were part of the Olympic Project for Human Rights — a movement to boycott the Olympics and unite athletes around civil rights issues. The movement was started by another San José State alumnus: Harry Edwards, ’64 Sociology, sports sociologist and human rights leader.
Top photo: Robert C. Bain/Michelle Hampton in front of the statute portraying Tommie Smith, ’69 Social Science, ’05 Honorary Doctorate; and John Carlos, ’05 Honorary Doctorate.
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