Shaquita Starks is an Associate Professor and Track Director for the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. As an innovative educator and PMHNP with nearly three decades of nursing experience, she is passionate about advancing nursing education by integrating social determinants of health and addressing systemic inequities in mental health and substance use care. She bridges academia and community by co-teaching with lived-experience experts, ensuring students grasp both textbook knowledge and real-world needs. She led a groundbreaking, federally funded substance use disorder training program expanding culturally congruent, trauma-informed care in underserved communities. She also pioneered collaborations between nursing academia and community initiatives, partnering with a faith-based organization to enhance substance use awareness and interventions in GA. Her Arts & Social Justice project addressed diagnostic biases affecting BIPOC youth, earning recognition for its innovative integration of art, social justice, and nursing education. She began nursing with an Associate of Applied Science from Holmes Community College and earned her BSN, MSN and PhD from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and a Post-Master Certificate in Family Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing from The University of Mississippi Medical Center.