Shameka Rodgers Phillips is a Family Nurse Practitioner and PhD in Nursing Student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researching pediatric sleep health disparities. She is passionate about providing resources that people from underserved and underrepresented populations can use to increase their overall wellness and decrease preventable disease diagnosis. Risk factors for several leading causes of death begin in childhood, and one of these risk factors is poor sleep health. Unfortunately, sleep health in children has been decreasing in the United States, which can potentially lead to an increased prevalence of chronic preventable diseases in future generations. Shameka believes that this is one of the reasons there needs to be a stronger emphasis on health maintenance behaviors in children. Her thoughts on health maintenance, her experiences as a Black woman born and raised in the rural, Deep South, her work in rural and underserved areas, and the statistics on childhood sleep inspired her research focus of pediatric sleep health disparities.She hopes to use this information to develop community-based and school-based behavioral interventions for improved sleep hygiene and cardiometabolic-related health behaviors. Shameka obtained a Bachelor’s in Nursing and a Master’s in Nursing/Family Primary Care/Rural Health from UAB. Shameka has medical/surgical and gynecology/oncology clinical experience as a registered nurse. She also has clinical experience in rural, family primary care as a nurse practitioner.
