David Drew is completing their second year as a DNP student in the Population Health and Systems Leadership track, and is exploring equitable and just use of AI in healthcare. In May 2026, they served as a student ambassador at the RAIN summit. Selected as the graduate student speaker at the King County Nurses Association scholarship gala earlier this year, they stated “Like so many before, after, and beside me, I walk a path dedicated to justice, representation, and equity, with vulnerability, joy, and strength.”
From the Gala to the Summit: A Student Leading With Purpose
The King County Nurses Association scholarship recognizes students who don’t just study health equity — they live it. Recipients are selected for their creative approaches to reducing health disparities in the community and for embodying the values of collaboration, compassion, innovation and community wellness. Drew’s selection as graduate student speaker reflects how fully they have embraced that mission, bringing both personal conviction and professional vision to a room full of nurses and community members committed to the same work.
That same commitment carried Drew to the University of Washington’s Northwest Summit to Reimagine AI in Nursing and Health Care — known as the RAIN Summit — where they served as one of a small number of student ambassadors selected from a competitive applicant pool. The role offered more than volunteerism: ambassadors gained access to keynote and panel sessions exploring the frontiers of AI in health care, and participated in flash mentorship moments with nationally recognized leaders in the field. For a student whose scholarly focus is the equitable and just use of AI in health care, the summit was less a detour from their research and more a window into its real-world stakes.
What ties these two experiences together is Drew’s understanding that innovation without equity is incomplete. Whether speaking to a room about justice and representation or learning alongside health care leaders about the promises and perils of AI, Drew brings the same grounded presence — one shaped by vulnerability, joy, and strength, as they put it themselves.