Piri Ackerman honored for turning influence into impact

UC Davis professor and longtime nursing leader Piri Ackerman received the UC DavisWomen & Philanthropy Impact Award Oct. 4, recognizing more than a decade of work opening doors for students, mentoring women and advancing more inclusive health professions education.

Ackerman, the assistant dean for student affairs and inclusive excellence at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, was honored during an event at the Robert and Magrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts on the UC Davis campus.

The annual award recognizes a UC Davis faculty or staff member who demonstrates exemplary leadership, advances women in their field and makes a significant impact at UC Davis and beyond.

For colleagues who nominated Ackerman, the honor reflects both the reach of her work and the deeply personal way she approaches leadership.

“Piri has the ability to see potential in people and then create opportunities for them to grow into it,” said Victoria Ngo, director of inclusive excellence at UC Davis Health. “She opens doors and connects them in supporting their leadership journey. I have seen this ripple effect in students, colleagues and communities.”

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Creating pathways into healthcare

During more than 10 years at the School of Nursing, Ackerman secured more than $2.8 million in philanthropic and grant funding to support first-generation college students, underrepresented communities and health equity programs.

Among her most visible efforts is the Summer Health Institute for Nursing Exploration and Success, or SHINES. The program gives high school and community college students, many from communities historically underrepresented in nursing, the opportunity to explore nursing and other health careers.

Dean Stephen Cavanagh said the results reflect more than simply creating a summer program.

“The program reports that more than 80% of its participants go on to college or enter the health workforce. This reflects thoughtful planning and a strong support structure that Dr. Ackerman created,” Cavanagh explained.

Pediatrician and UC Davis professor emeritus Jann Murray-García watched Ackerman develop SHINES into a program connecting young people with the role models and opportunities that could make a health career seem possible.

“You can’t be it unless you can see it,” Murray-García said.

Ackerman says mentorship is not a one-way street.

“I've learned as much from my students and colleagues as they've learned from me. That's at the heart of cultural humility: staying curious, staying accountable and recognizing that none of us has all the answers. There is joy in that kind of community,” she said.

Changing education and developing leaders

Ackerman’s influence also reaches beyond UC Davis. Her scholarship on topics including microaggressions, stereotype threat and inclusive learning environments have appeared in leading health journals.

Murray-García said Ackerman helped move conversations about inclusion from the margins of academic medicine into mainstream health professions education. That influence is also visible through the people she taught and mentored.

“Seeing students and mentees succeed is one of the greatest joys of my career,” Ackerman said. “When a former student tells me they've been accepted to nursing school or grad school, or that they're now mentoring someone else, I see the ripple effect. That's what health equity looks like in practice.”

Aron King, a two-time School of Nursing graduate, said Ackerman helped reshape the way future health professionals thought about the communities they served.

“Her work weaves together the personal and the structural, the emotional and the empirical, the academic and the communal,” King said. “Her measurable impact and unwavering commitment to dignity and justice make her a model for the future of community-engaged healthcare.”

And for the students, faculty members and future health professionals who benefit from Ackerman’s work, her impact continues to spread through one opportunity, one mentor and one new leader at a time.