Before Dr. Lakeshia Cousin became a distinguished nurse scientist, educator, and medical director of the UF Health Cancer Center Mobile Cancer Screening Connector, she was sure of one thing. She did not want to be a nurse.
“My sister was a nurse. My aunt was a nurse. My mother was in health care. I thought, ‘I don’t want to do it,’” she remembers.
Instead, she opted for a degree in business.
“I did well at it. But I didn’t like it at all. I was bored. I felt like God had a purpose for me, and I felt like I wasn’t fulfilling my true purpose,” said Cousin.
Then she started volunteering at St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital in Tampa and she “found her North Star.”
“I loved it. I really enjoyed watching the nurses. Secretly, I was jealous,” she said. “I went to nursing school because I wanted to be able to pay it forward.”
But the St. Petersburg native absolutely wasn’t interested in graduate school. Then her grandmother died of breast cancer and she felt like she could do more.
An APRN and PhD degree later, she is now fulfilling that desire to do more.
“I wanted to dedicate my research to my grandmother,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons I do breast cancer survivorship research. It’s why I am in the community. I want to make an impact on a larger scale as a nurse scientist.”
Her research centers on reducing disparities in cancer screening and preventive healthcare, and she is deeply committed to promoting early detection and access to quality care for these communities. She is also dedicated to studying gratitude and how it impacts patients’ biomarkers, particularly in breast cancer survivors.
“This is my way to illuminate the path of nursing,” she said.