AONL Continues Commitment to Reducing Care Disparities

At AONL 2025 in Boston, Claire Zangerle, DNP, RN, AONL CEO and American Hospital Association senior vice president and CNE, shared the organization’s commitment to continuing the work of reducing health care disparities with the sold-out conference attendees. The recent executive orders from the new administration on diversity, equity, and inclusion have given us pause, not on the valuable work, but how we continue our work — AONL’s longstanding commitment to reducing disparities in health outcomes has not changed. 

As AONL is an affiliate of the AHA, we recognize the obligation to comply with the executive order such that our seat at the table is not threatened, allowing us to advocate for members and member organizations facing potential threats to various funding sources. 

AONL members will see revisions to website language and collateral materials to ensure compliance with the executive order. The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee has recently evolved to comply as well, while continuing the work of reducing health care disparities. Having completed its initial goals beyond expectation, the committee will now evolve to support AONL's broader mission and initiatives by embedding individual committee members into existing AONL committees to continue the work of reducing health disparities.

AONL celebrates the work of this committee which formed in 2020 in response to the civil unrest that broke out across the nation.  Led by previous AONL Board Members Erik Martin, DNP, RN, Joy Parchment, PhD, RN, and Crytal Mitchell, MSN, RN, and most recently Jackie Herd, DNP, RN, and Nick Escobedo, DNP, RN,  the committee produced significant resources for AONL membership including DEIB Guiding Principles and two versions of a DEIB Toolkit.  The work was disseminated through published articles and presentations at regional meetings and the annual conferences.

With heartfelt gratitude, AONL recognizes the leadership and members of the DEIB Committee over the last five years and looks forward to their continued contributions to this work through existing committees. Again, our work continues!