Josephine Ensign DrPH, MPH, FNP
Through my teaching, public scholarship, clinical practice, and writing, I engage in critiques of current social justice issues such as poverty and homelessness, trauma and resilience, and the well-being of marginalized populations. For the past decade my work has centered on using personal stories to highlight important public policy issues within an emancipatory framework. With an undergraduate degree in medical/health humanities (biology and religion with an emphasis on medical ethics), and a doctorate in international health with a focus on health policy, my worldview is interdisciplinary. My overall aim is to humanize health care, to cultivate empathy leading to action.
Education
- DrPH, Johns Hopkins University, 1995
- MPH Johns Hopkins University, 1992
- MSN, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1986
- BA, Oberlin College, 1981
What classes do you teach?
Community Health; Health Politics and Policy, Health Policy; Narrative Medicine
What do you love about the UW School of Nursing?
Working with groups of interprofessional health science students, faculty, and staff on meaningful community-based service-learning projects
Scholarly work
- Ensign, J. (Fall 2017) “Witness: On Telling” in Columbia University’s Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine.
- Ensign, J. (June 22, 2017) “The Hospital on Profanity Hill—A History of Harborview Hospital (Seattle)” in org, essay #20393.
- Ensign, J. (June 2017) “Perspective” in Journal of Medical Humanities.
- Ensign, J. (February 2017) “Degree of Latitude”in Manifest-Station.
- Ensign, J. (January 2017/ Prepared August 2016) National Health Care for the Homeless Council’s Special Report “National Health Care for the Homeless: A Vision of Health for All.”
- Ensign, J. (November 2016) “Listen, Carefully”in Electric Literature/Okey-Panky.
- Ensign, J. (Fall 2016) “Way Out; Way Home” in Raven Chronicles Journal 23: Jack Straw Writers Program, 1997-2016.
- Ensign, J. (August 2016) Catching Homelessness: A Nurse’s Story of Falling Through the Safety Net(Berkeley: She Writes Press). Named the University of Washington Health Sciences Common Bookfor academic year 2016/2017.
- Ensign, J. (Spring 2016) “Medical Maze”in Columbia University’s Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine.
- Ensign, J. (May 2016). “Greyhound Therapy”in the Front Porch Journal, Issue 32
- Ensign, J. (2018). Soul Stories: Voices from the Margins (San Francisco: University of California Medical Humanities Press)
- Ensign, J. Medical Margins: Josephine Ensign on Health Humanities, Policy, Nursing.
Department
Child, Family, and Population Health NursingResearch Areas
- Health Equity
Research Centers
Dept of Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing
Box 357262
1959 NE Pacific St.
Seattle, WA 98195
Office: T 518