Carol A. Etherington, MSN, RN, FAAN
Global Health Research Interests: Community Health, Victims of Violence, Natural Disaster, War & Conflict
Carol Etherington is a nurse who has worked with traumatized populations in urban and rural areas around the globe. She established one of the first police-based counseling programs in the nation within the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department. She has also worked throughout the U.S. during natural and manufactured disasters, including earthquakes, hurricanes, and New York City post 9/11.
Ms. Etherington first served on an international emergency medical team in the aftermath of the Pol Pot genocide. In the early 90s, she completed four missions in war-torn Bosnia and, since 1996, has worked with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) in Bosnia, Poland, Honduras, Tajikistan, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Angola, and in the Darfur refugee camps of Eastern Chad. In 2013, she worked in Jordan and Lebanon to evaluate an MSF mental health program in Iraq.
A member of the MSF/USA Board of Directors from 1998 to 2004, she served the last two years of her tenure as President of that Board. She has been honored with the Florence Nightingale Medal (1997/98) from the International Red Cross, received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of New Hampshire in 2004, and was named Distinguished Alumna of the Year by the Vanderbilt Alumni Association in 2007 and inducted into the Tennessee Healthcare Hall of Fame in 2018. She has served on the Metro Nashville/Davidson County Board of Health since 2009.
From 2008 to 2014, Ms. Etherington worked with the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health, teaching and mentoring interdisciplinary graduate students pursuing projects and careers in community health, global health, disaster response, and caring for victims of violence. She has conducted diverse assessments in Kenya, China, Mozambique, Guatemala, Bosnia, and Cuba. As a retired professor emerita, she continues to teach classes at the University and the Medical Center, mentoring students in community health initiatives.
Education
MSN, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing