United Medical Center
Washington, DC
Erin Athey, DNP, FNP-BC, RN, FAANP, is faculty at the George Washington School of Nursing and a family nurse practitioner who has specialized in HIV/AIDS for the last 15 years in the District of Columbia. For the last decade, Dr. Athey has been working in Ward 8 of Washington DC as a clinician, educator and community-engaged scholar in an effort to improve health outcomes for those who are under-resourced and disenfranchised. Realizing that so much of health happens outside of the clinic walls, Dr Athey’s experiences as a clinician have led her to develop several innovative community-based initiatives that focus on improving health literacy and bringing healthcare out into the community. These programs include the Mental Health Improvement through Studying, Teaching, Rebranding, Embedded Education and Technology (MHI-STREET) initiative, which used barbershops in Southeast, DC to promote mental health literacy in African American men and the MHI-STREET Youth initiative which is currently training youth to develop and deliver culturally tailored, mental health education to other youth. She also has been active in revivifying United Medical Center’s mobile health programs and has forged a new partnership with the DC Housing Authority to provide clinical services and health education to residents in public housing. She has strong connections to both the Rodham Institute and the Nashman Center for Civic Engagement, both GW-based institutions that are committed to using university resources to address health disparities and inequities in Washington, DC.