Freida Hopkins Outlaw, PhD, RN, APRN, FADLN, FAAN, is a professor in the department of Family and Community Medicine at Meharry Medical College. Prior, she served as the Executive Program Consultant for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Minority Fellowship Program at the American Nurses Association. For eight years Dr. Outlaw served as the Assistant Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. For fifteen years she was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing where she was the Director of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Graduate Program. Dr. Outlaw has written in the areas of cultural diversity; management of aggression, seclusion and restraint; the role of religion, spirituality and the meaning of prayer for people with cancer; the use of the Geriatric Depression Scale with older African Americans; Black women and depression; children’s mental health; quality of life of African American women caregivers; the mental health needs of minority transgender youth and children; families, trauma and stress; and racism and African American coping. She is a co-author of Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care, 7th edition, which was recognized in 2015 with a book of the year award by the American Nurses Association.

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She received her Baccalaureate in Nursing from Berea College, Masters in Psychiatric Nursing from Boston College and a Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America and completed her postdoctoral study in Psychosocial Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) and the Academy of Diversity Leaders in Nursing (ADLN).