By Pareasa Rahimi
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing faculty and alumni are strengthening the impact of nurse practitioners and advocating for patients across the state as leaders on the Executive Board of the Nurse Practitioner Alliance of Alabama. In addition to the roles of NPAA President and Past President, UABSON faculty and alumni are serving across the leadership board, extending the School’s influence across Alabama. The School is committed to nurturing faculty who strive to shape the future of nursing through impactful leadership and professional excellence.
Assistant Professor Adam Kinsaul, DNP, CRNP, ACNP-BC, RNFA (MSN 2010, DNP 2022)
Kinsaul is President of NPAA through 2027 and has been a member of the organization for 15 years. Prior to his role as President, he served as Chair of the Full Practice Authority Committee and the Bylaws Committee. During his time with the organization, he has improved access to care and reduced nurse practitioner practice barriers through interventions such as expanding the Medicaid fee schedule for nurse practitioners, revising and expanding the orthopedic specialty protocol and revising and improving controlled substance prescribing rules. He also established the first NPAA Scholarship Fund for nurse practitioner students and implemented new continuing education opportunities for members. At the national level, Kinsaul serves as Vice Chair of the Research Committee for the American Association for Men in Nursing and was honored with a Daisy Award by the organization in October 2025. He also serves on the Education Committee for the National Association of Orthopedic Nurses and is Chair-Elect of the School’s Faculty Practice Committee. This year, he was recognized with the School’s Teaching Award for Innovation in Didactic Instruction.
Adjunct Instructor Eileen Meyer, DNP CRNP, ACNP-BC (MSN 1997, DNP 2017)
Meyer is Immediate Past President, following her term as President from 2023–2025. She also previously served as Vice President of Policy and Senior Policy Advisor for NPAA. Meyer is the UAB Medicine Director of Advanced Practice Providers and serves on the School’s Board of Visitors, as well as the School’s Leadership and Health Policy Initiative Advisory Board. In addition, she participates in the Health Policy Initiative as a mentor and as an Adjunct Didactic Instructor in the School’s DNP Health Policy and Politics course. Meyer has worked to develop statewide procedural protocols, expand Medicaid billing codes and has advocated for Alabama Act 2018-474. She has played a key role in modernizing controlled substance prescribing regulations for collaborative practice. Additionally, she has led the development and refinement of procedural protocols for nurse practitioners, including small-joint injections, central venous access, Botox administration, fluoroscopy, tunneling, paracentesis and critical care advanced protocols. Meyer also led the passage and implementation efforts for Alabama Act 2025-278 (HB194), restructuring the Joint Committee overseeing collaborative practice between physicians and advanced practice nurses. She holds a Master of Jurisprudence with an emphasis on Health Law, Policy and Management from Texas A&M School of Law and was appointed to the Alabama Board of Midwifery this year.
Assistant Professor, Co-Coordinator of the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Specialty Track Hiboombe Haamankuli, DNP, CRNP, ACNP‐BC, FNAP (MSN 2010, DNP 2016)
Haamankuli currently serves as Vice President of Membership and previously held the role of Member-at-Large. In his role as Vice President, he engages NPAA members at the grassroots level to sustain and grow organizational membership. His successful strategies for member retention and recruitment led to his appointment to the Membership Task Force and the Membership Committee for the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association. Haamankuli’s scholarship focuses on improving men’s health, with an emphasis on prostate cancer outcomes among Black men. In 2025, while a doctoral student in the School’s PhD Program, he received a $2,000 Doctoral Scholarship from the Alabama League for Nursing to support his research on adverse treatment outcomes and their impact on quality of life among Black men with prostate cancer. He also was a recipient of the School’s Florence Nightingale Award for Scholarly Work for his project to increase prostate cancer knowledge among men in the Birmingham area. In recognition of his teaching excellence, Haamankuli received the School’s Nancy Smith Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2025. In March, he was inducted as a Fellow of the National Academies of Practice.
Assistant Professor Lindsey Harris, DNP, CRNP, FNP‐BC, FAAN (MSN 2011, DNP 2016)
Harris is Vice President of Policy. In 2020, she was elected the youngest and first African-American President of the Alabama State Nurses Association and previously served as President of the Birmingham Black Nurses Association Inc. In 2021, Harris was named one of the School’s 70 Visionary Leaders. In 2023, she became the first nurse from Alabama to complete a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellowship, and was named an Ambassador of the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research in 2024.
Associate Professor and Co-Director of Health Policy Partnerships D’Ann Somerall, DNP, MAEd, CRNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN (BSN 1995, MSN 1999, DNP 2011)
Somerall is Vice President of Community Affairs. She has been a faculty member at the School since 2002 and has sustained involvement in health policy as both an educator and advocate, particularly in advancing the scope of practice for nurse practitioners in Alabama. From 2010 to 2017, she worked at the School’s nurse-managed clinic at The Foundry Ministries and is currently a nurse practitioner at the nurse-managed PATH (Providing Access to Healthcare) Clinic. She is a founding member of the National Association of Family Nurse Practitioners and previously served as President of NPAA. Somerall was named a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners in 2020. She received the inaugural Meritorious Service Award from the Alabama State Nurses Association in 2024, followed by the AANP State Award for Outstanding Contributions in 2025. In 2025, she also was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
Laura Debiasi, DNP, MPH, FNP-C (BSN 2009, MSN 2012, DNP 2015)
Alumna Laura Debiasi resumes the role of Treasurer following her earlier term from 2022–2024. Debiasi was an Assistant Professor at the School from 2012-2017, teaching both undergraduate and graduate students. During that time, she maintained a faculty practice across multiple outpatient clinics where she worked as a nurse practitioner. She currently is a nurse practitioner on the Pulmonary Care Unit at UAB Medicine and Children’s of Alabama and is active on hospital-wide committees. She also is a nurse faculty member for the UAB Pediatric Pulmonary Center, an interprofessional training grant housed in the Heersink School of Medicine and funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Debiasi is an active member of the Alabama League for Nursing, where she served as President from 2019-2021. She also is a member of the Association of Pulmonary Advanced Practitioners, serving on its conference planning committee, and is a longtime member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.