Welcome to the first edition of the Black Nurses Rock (BNR) Magazine! I am super excited of what has been accomplished in such a short amount of time. Black Nurses Rock is a solution to a problem I seen in other national organizations and corporations. I want national nurse leaders to be more personable, engaging, professional, and most importantly inspirational. I also wanted to address the issue of isolation and oversight, not only as the only black nurse in my clinic or unit, but the isolation of not seeing other black nurses who are driven, successful, and determined.

I created the change I wanted to see!

For those who remembered the first week of launching Black Nurses Rock on Social media, it was emotional, inspirational, explosive, and dynamic. For the first time, we saw and read incredible stories of other black nurses who were “Rockin it” in one forum! Within two weeks, a conference and a cruise was planned! Obviously I wasn’t the only one thirsty for professional mentorship and growth. It appeared that 80,000 other nurses and students were as well. Within 96 hours, we had over 80,000 in our group! That’s at a rate of almost 833 nurses an hour! It was incredible and addictive to watch! For the first time, I could not put my phone down! I heard other reports of phones dying within hours as we stayed glued in reading the countless phenomenal stories within our group.

The thought of a magazine was an immediate idea because the snapshots were not enough, I wanted to learn more about the awesome nurses I read about on Facebook. I also wanted to continue to inspire nurses with another method of delivery. We want our audience to Aspire to achieve everything they want in life! If you can see it, you can become it. Constant exposure to those nurses who are beating the odds and exceling despite, is what one can see when subscribing to the quarterly BNR Magazine! The BNR Magazine will highlight our fellow nurses and their amazing accomplishments, we want our audience to stay “Pumped Up” and Inspired! Our undertone will be to desire the best because we deserve the best!

This special edition will feature the new leaders for Black Nurses Rock, read their bio’s, and visions for directing Black Nurses Rock to become the #1 International Professional Black Nurses Organization in the world! The awesome group was selected by an “All Call” throughout the nation, asking nurses if anyone interested for a Masters of the Mind retreat to form a national organization.

October 23^rd 2015, 13 individuals, who did NOT know each other, took the journey to Enid Oklahoma to officially form the Black Nurses Rock foundation. They spent an entire weekend learning how to be a Board member with a Board development workshop, which allowed us to establish the mission, vision, and Bylaws for Black Nurses Rock! We came together as total strangers, and left as a family! The unity was UNREAL and there were several moments where no one was in control..but God.

A special thanks to all the nurses who personally posted on my timeline or inboxed me thanking me for starting this organization. The support was overwhelming and truly appreciated. We now need each members in our Facebook group to join officially as Black Nurses Rock members so we can fulfil the mission. If you have not already, we ask you to go online and join today! There is power in numbers, but greater when you have organization and funds! To my wonderful family, thank you for your love and support, especially my handsome husband-thank you for helping pack and mail thousands of boxes of Black Nurses Rock t-shirts and keeping the bed warm as I stayed up late working.

This first edition is dedicated to my dear Goalmates who pushed me to make Black Nurses Rock public before I was ready. Tonya Washington-Nash, Jazmin Shawell-Wallace, Kimaka Bowen. You three ladies stood by me in support and love and helped me launch BNR in a way as if it was your own. I truly love each of you and I look forward to this incredible journey as we embark on a revolution and movement for our profession….the launch of a new National Nursing Organization!

It gives me great honor, to introduce an incredible group of leaders who are passionate and see the vision for the future of BNR.