Melissa D. Hladek is an Assistant Professor and Principal Faculty in the Center for Equity in Aging at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. Dr. Hladek is an expert in health equity and aging. Her research focuses on the intersection of how stress, self-efficacy, and sociocultural factors influence aging and multiple chronic conditions as well as the development of strengths-based, person-environment strategies and policies to improve outcomes. Dr. Hladek is funded through NIDDK, NIA and the Hartford Foundation. Dr. Hladek is a staunch advocate for centering patient's values and goals in both research and clinical healthcare decision-making. As such, Dr. Hladek is the lead NP in the national effort to disseminate Patient Priorities Care (PPC) to NP clinicians and students, also working with the PPC national team in multi-disciplinary dissemination and Spanish translation efforts. These contributions have refined the clinical practices of more than 7,000 clinicians and students toward person-centered care for older adults, focusing on racially minoritized groups. Dr. Hladek’s work also includes notable contributions to the Pan-American Health Organization’s Decade of Healthy Aging in 13 countries and Medicare modernization through TV ads generating over 1 million views and more than 20,000 letters and 5,000 calls to Congress. Dr. Hladek maintains a clinical practice with a primarily Spanish-speaking community, teaches both DNP and PhD students and, is the President for the National Association of Hispanic Nurses-DC Metro Chapter.