Wanda D. Thruston serves as Director of Access and Engagement at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), where she leads national initiatives to advance nursing workforce diversity, holistic admissions, and institutional transformation aligned with health and educational equity. A nationally recognized nurse leader, Dr. Thruston founded the Future Promises Program, a school-based health and education initiative supporting thousands of pregnant and parenting teens and created the Young Families of Indiana Network to strengthen services for young families. She also established three school-based health clinics and co-founded Project S.H.A.P.E. to deliver preventive care in inner-city children. She previously served as Clinical Assistant Professor and inaugural Special Assistant to the Dean for DEI at Indiana University School of Nursing. Her contributions to scholarship and policy include co-authoring a widely cited anti-racism statement for the Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine, consulting internationally on maternal health, and leading a $500,000 health equity assessment for Indiana’s second-largest school district. Dr. Thruston is a former elected school board member and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Fellow. She earned her DNP and master’s as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from Indiana University and her BSN from DePauw University.