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For Reesa Eliza Artz ’24, nursing has never been confined to the walls of a hospital. As a school nurse, PhD student, doula, advocate, and community leader, she approaches every role through a holistic lens grounded in trust, connection, and equity.

A Chippewa Cree tribal member from Rocky Boy Nation in Montana, Artz said her identity has always shaped her understanding of health and the work she feels called to do.

"Indigenous communities face some of the starkest maternal health disparities in the country, and behind every one of those statistics is a family, a story, and a system that failed them," she said. "I grew up understanding that health, culture, and sovereignty are woven together, that wellness for Indigenous people has never been just about medicine, but about connection to community, land, language, and tradition. And that becomes our medicine too. That understanding drives everything I do."

Just two years after graduating from É«½äÖ±²¥'s pre-licensure program, Artz has built a career that bridges clinical care, research, education, and advocacy.

"I've been able to be ambitious and multifaceted in a way where everything connects," she said. "The nursing informs the research, the research informs the advocacy, and it all circles back to community. All of it, every role and space, is rooted in the same commitment to community health and the people within it."

Finding Her Path at É«½äÖ±²¥

Artz said É«½äÖ±²¥ helped expand her understanding of what nursing could be.

"É«½äÖ±²¥ taught me to see nursing as bigger than the bedside," she said. "The pre-licensure program grounded me clinically, but I took every opportunity to stretch beyond it."

Through É«½äÖ±²¥'s nurse-led mobile health clinic, she worked with rural and underserved communities and gained firsthand experience addressing social drivers of health. That work would later influence her research interests in rural and Indigenous health.

She also completed É«½äÖ±²¥'s Graduate Certificate in Global Health, which she said provided valuable frameworks for understanding health equity on a systems level. Outside the classroom, she worked full-time as both an international student residential assistant and a graduate assistant with É«½äÖ±²¥ University Union, experiences that strengthened her skills in community building and cross-cultural engagement.

Perhaps most significantly, É«½äÖ±²¥ helped spark her interest in maternal health.

"É«½äÖ±²¥ is where my maternal health path truly began," she said. "I was trained as a postpartum doula through the inaugural cohort of Postpartum Partners, an interprofessional service-learning program where students provide community-centered postpartum care to local families."

Advancing Equity in Indigenous Maternal Health

Today, Artz is pursuing a PhD in Indigenous and Rural Health with a focus on maternal and reproductive health. Her dissertation, conducted in partnership with the California Rural Indian Health Board, examines the role of Indigenous doulas in improving maternal health outcomes and supporting Indigenous families as they navigate healthcare systems.

"Most birth worker training in this country was built from a single, Western, one-size-fits-all perspective," she said. "It doesn't reflect Indigenous birthing traditions, our family structures, our ceremonies, or our ways of knowing. When families don't see themselves in their care, they disengage from it."

Her goal is to help create training programs that honor both cultural traditions and evidence-based practice.

"My goal is to build training that is both medically rigorous and culturally rooted, so Indigenous birth workers can serve their communities as their full selves," she said.

Being a Trusted Presence

Alongside her doctoral studies, Artz serves as a school nurse in Title I schools in Sacramento, where she supports students facing challenges that extend well beyond physical health.

"My students carry a lot, housing instability, homelessness, foster care, food insecurity," she said. "The most powerful thing I offer isn't always clinical. It's being a consistent, trusted adult in a hallway where they know the door is always open."

Much of her work focuses on pregnant and parenting teenagers, many of whom have never experienced consistent healthcare or support systems.

"I'm often the first healthcare person who's ever really known them," she said. "Once that trust exists, everything else becomes possible. Care, resources, staying enrolled, dreaming past graduation."

Artz helps students navigate healthcare programs, access community resources, and continue their education while raising children. For her, those efforts are rooted in relationships.

One of the most meaningful moments of her career came when a student asked Artz to serve as her support person during labor and delivery.

The experience reinforced Artz's belief that nursing is as much about presence and advocacy as it is about clinical expertise.

"I show up for my students the way I'd want someone to show up for kids from my own community," she said, "with cultural humility, patience, and deep respect for where they come from."

Service, Leadership, and Representation

Artz's commitment to service extends beyond nursing and research. She is currently National American Miss California Elite 2026, becoming the first Indigenous woman to hold the title.

For Artz, pageantry provides a platform for leadership and community impact.

"I always love talking about pageantry because it defies every outdated stereotype," she said. "Today's pageantry builds public speaking, interviewing, professional presence, and the confidence to walk into any room, whether that's a boardroom, a dissertation defense, or a school health office."

She also credits pageant scholarship programs with helping make her educational journey possible.

"More than anything, a title is a platform for service," she said.

During her title year, she has developed partnerships with schools, cultural organizations, healthcare institutions, and community nonprofits focused on children's health, wellness, and cultural celebration.

"Every one of those partnerships connects back to the things I care about most: children's health, community wellness, and celebrating culture," she said.

For Artz, pageantry and nursing are not separate pursuits but complementary ways of serving others.

"Pageantry taught me that a woman never has to choose between being smart and being sparkly, between the lab and the stage, between ambition and joy," she said. "She can be all of it, at full volume, and use every bit of it in service of her community."

Strengthening the É«½äÖ±²¥ Nursing Community

Artz also remains deeply connected to É«½äÖ±²¥ through her service on the É«½äÖ±²¥ Alumni Council. As a recent graduate, she is helping strengthen connections among alumni while creating opportunities for current students through mentorship and regional engagement initiatives.

Her passion for mentorship is rooted in her own student experience. During her third semester at É«½äÖ±²¥, she served as a mentor to first-year pre-licensure students, helping them navigate the challenges of a rigorous program.

Today, she hopes to continue fostering that same sense of support and belonging.

"I love sharing my educational experience," she said. "I've gotten to hold all these roles at once, nurse, PhD candidate, doula, advocate, and I feel genuinely fulfilled because at the core, they're all the same thing."

For Artz, every role ultimately comes back to a simple but powerful purpose.

"They're all about showing up for people.