Members on the Move

Erik V. Carter, PhD, MSN, APRN-ACNS, CCRN-A, PHN, serves as Director of Undergraduate Programs and Associate Professor, Clinical, in the College of Nursing at Wayne State University, an R1 research institution in Detroit, Michigan. A cardiovascular nurse scientist and clinical nurse specialist, Dr. Carter studies the biological and social mechanisms that drive cardiovascular disease, with particular attention to hypertension among populations of African origin. In 2025 he received the Wayne State University Dr. Marquita Chamblee Community Impact Award.

Dr. Carter earned his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Phoenix in 1996, followed by a Master of Science in 2008 and a PhD in 2015, both from the University of California, San Francisco. His doctoral training was supported by a National Institutes of Health Summer Genetics Institute Fellowship and a CTSI predoctoral fellowship through the Pathways to Careers in Clinical and Translational Research program. He joined Wayne State in 2017 after faculty appointments at Samuel Merritt University and UCSF.

His research connects clinical cardiology to population health. Earlier in his career he contributed to a series of studies on electrocardiographic monitoring and allograft rejection in heart transplant recipients, including first-authored work on home QT-interval monitoring published in Heart and Lung. His current program investigates the interactions among DNA methylation, dietary practice, and blood pressure in African immigrants and African Americans, work he leads as Principal Investigator through the ACHIEVE GreatER pilot program. He also serves as Co-Investigator on B.R.I.D.G.E. (Building Relationships to Impact Disparities and Generate Equity), a 2.4-million-dollar HHS Office of Minority Health initiative addressing colorectal cancer and opioid-related disparities in metro Detroit.

At Wayne State, Dr. Carter directs the undergraduate nursing program and has led competency-based curricular development across the BSN curriculum. He mentors across the educational pipeline, from high school students to doctoral candidates, and serves on DNP and PhD committees. His scholarship on equity in nursing education includes "When Holistic Admission Review is Not Enough: Barriers to Diversity" in the Journal of Nursing Education, and he has presented his health-equity work at the ABNF Annual Conference. Within ABNF, he serves as a Member-at-Large of the Board of Directors and previously served on the Education Committee from 2023 to 2025. He holds the AACN Elevating Leaders in Academic Nursing (ELAN) Fellowship (2021) and the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity Faculty Success Program Fellowship (2023), serves on Elsevier's Nursing Education Advisory Board, and reviews for the Journal of Professional Nursing. Since 2020 he has served as a Human Rights Commissioner for Detroit's Fifth District.

Affiliations

• Wayne State University College of Nursing (Director of Undergraduate Programs; Associate Professor, Clinical)
• University of California, San Francisco (MS, PhD; NIH Summer Genetics Institute Fellow)
• University of Phoenix (BSN)

Memberships

• Association of Black Nursing Faculty (Member-at-Large, Board of Directors; Education Committee, 2023 to 2025)
• American Association of Colleges of Nursing (ELAN Fellow; Transform Planning Sub-Committee, 2025 to 2027)
• Elsevier Nursing Education Advisory Board
• American Nurses Association
• National League for Nursing
• National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists
• American Heart Association
• Sigma Theta Tau International
• National Consortium of Academic Nurse Educators