LSU Health’s Chatmon Elected to International Post Key for LA
November 21, 2023Benita Chatmon, PhD, MSN, RN, CNE, Assistant Dean for Clinical Nursing Education at LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing, has been elected North America Region 6 Sigma Global Regional Coordinator, an international leadership position with Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma). Sigma’s mission is to “develop nurse leaders anywhere to improve healthcare everywhere.”
Serving two-year terms, Regional Coordinators provide leadership that establishes and maintains communication and networking among chapters and regional committee members. As members of the Regional Chapters Coordinating Committee, Regional Coordinators lead the regional committee and collaborate with Sigma headquarters staff.
One of three standing committees of the Sigma Board of Directors, the Regional Chapters Coordinating Committee comprises 21 elected Regional Coordinators and one elected chairperson.
“As the Region 6 Regional Coordinator, I am responsible for chapters located in Louisiana, Texas, and some of Arkansas,” notes Dr. Chatmon, who is also an assistant professor of clinical nursing at LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing.
Dr. Chatmon has extensive experience in medical-surgical nursing, mental health nursing,
nursing education, nursing research, and nursing leadership. She has demonstrated
exemplary contributions to the profession of nursing through service and mentoring
within local, regional, and national committees/organizations. Currently, she is President
of the Louisiana State Nurses Association (LSNA) for the term 2023-2025. Under her
leadership, LSNA successfully established the Nursing Maternal Mortality and Preterm
Births Task Force (SCR 20) and played a pivotal role in passing legislation related
to surgical smoke evacuation, making Louisiana the 12th state to enact such a law.
She serves on the American Nurses Association’s Project Millennial -Gen Z CSNA Advisory
Group. She also serves as a Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) site
reviewer.
Dr. Chatmon maintains dual membership in Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society (Epsilon Nu at Large and Tau Pi Chapter). She served as chapter president within Epsilon Nu at Large from 2021 to 2023, and now serving as the Leadership Succession Chair. She also served as a past president for Tau Pi Chapter. She is also a member of several nursing professional organizations, including the Southern Nursing Research Society (Nominating Committee), American Nurses Association (Millennial Gen-z Advisory Council), National League for Nurses, National Black Nurses Association (Mentor Ambassador/Bylaws Committee), and Association of Black Nursing Faculty (Board of Director/Education Committee).
Dr. Chatmon was inducted into the Louisiana Great 100 Nurses (2017), selected as a CityBusiness 2019 Health Care Hero, and honored as a Southern University Alumni Federation 40 Under Forty 2019 Cohort Deux recipient. She was awarded the Daisy Award for Extraordinary Faculty which is given to nursing faculty for their inspirational influence on the nurses of today and tomorrow. She was an honoree of the National Black Nurses Association 40 Under 40. Dr. Chatmon is an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated and serves as a two-term president of her local chapter. Notably, Dr. Chatmon is a veteran in the United States Army.
Her research interests include, but are not limited to, mentoring in nursing education, tools/initiatives to increase diversity in nursing (for which she received a $1 million HRSA grant to assist in increasing diversity within the nursing workforce), mental health among underrepresented minorities, sexual assault in mental health patients, and adult learning theories.
“Dr. Chatmon’s election to this key post reflects the reputation of our Nursing School as an innovative leader of excellence in nursing,” says Demetrius Porche, DNS, PhD, ANEF, FACHE, FAANP, FAAN, LSU health New Orleans School of Nursing Dean.”
LSU Health New Orleans educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's health sciences university leader, LSU Health New Orleans includes a School of Medicine with campuses in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSU Health New Orleans faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research, the LSU Health New Orleans research enterprise generates jobs and enormous annual economic impact. LSU Health New Orleans faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu, http://www.twitter.com/LSUHealthNO, or http://www.facebook.com/LSUHSC.
Founded in 1922 by six nursing students, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma) has more than 100,000 active members and 600 chapters at institutions of higher education and healthcare partners from Armenia, Australia, and Botswana to Thailand, the United States, and Wales. Sigma members include clinical nurses and administrators, academic nurse educators and researchers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and others working to fulfill the organization’s vision of connected, empowered nurse leaders transforming global healthcare. Visit https://www.sigmanursing.org/why-sigma/about-sigma/sigma-organizational-fact-sheet for more information.