Be the Messenger

Blog contribution by NIHD President, Elizabeth Johnson, PhD, MS-CRM, RN

We continue January’s conversation on legacy by widening the lens, drawing from a central theme that emerged in our special edition podcast. Each speaker shared a moment, or a series of decisions, shaped by advocacy: advocacy for others, for oneself, and for the evolving discipline of healthcare design.

But what does it truly mean to advocate? 

The word advocacy traces back to the medieval Latin advocatia—“to summon” or “to call to one’s aid.” Since 2019, interest in this term has surged, reflecting a shared desire to seek support, courage, and clarity in an increasingly uncertain world. Advocacy, at its core, is an act of calling forth: help, hope, or a voice when it matters most. 

How, then, do we summon aid? For those in service professions, particularly in healthcare and design, this may be advocacy’s most demanding form. Large-scale projects, relentless deadlines, and shifting cultural climates can test even the most resilient among us. This is where NIHD stands firmly beside you: through our community forum, committee work, and open collaborations with academic and practice partners. Advocacy does not occur in isolation; it is sustained through connection. 

On a personal note, I am beginning a Firearm Injury Prevention Research Network fellowship to deepen understanding of how cultural values can be meaningfully integrated with safety protections that are often absent in rural, remote, and frontier health systems. This work spans physical, psychological, and organizational dimensions of care. Along this journey, assisting loved ones to access crisis support services underscored the profound courage required to self-advocate and the care it takes to seek guidance from professionals who help orient us back to reality, purpose, and mission. 

The idea of “calling to one’s aid” resonates deeply with the Lakota concept of kic’ó—a reciprocal and relational approach to advocacy. In this tradition, one is both invited and entrusted: a messenger to a moment, a place, or a shared responsibility. By extending invitations, we cultivate messengers—people who carry forward new ideas, shared struggles, and deeper understanding of one another’s pain and purpose. 

Here in Montana, this spirit lives on through extended “good neighbor” models that stretch across Alaska and throughout the Intermountain West. These models invite those ready to listen, learn, and engage to immerse themselves in a rich quilt of cultures.

This May, we look forward to launching the Wide Horizons Chapter of the International Children’s Advisory Network, a global initiative grounded here in the Rockies. This chapter will create opportunities for children, adolescents, and young adults to participate in U.S. Food and Drug Administration focus groups, healthcare design surveys, in-person charrettes, and virtual gatherings, ensuring their voices help shape the systems designed to serve them. 

Our February podcast brings these themes full circle through a conversation with Grace Kistner, a board-certified Critical Care Registered Nurse and seasoned leader in global health promotion.

Since 2007, Grace has facilitated international clinical teams, strengthened advocacy efforts with United Nations–affiliated organizations, and contributed to meaningful policy reform. Serving on multiple boards, councils, and advisory panels, she mentors emerging leaders while advancing visions that range from elegant, practical solutions to the expansive goals of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Agenda.  

As we move through the year ahead, I am excited to introduce new voices, perspectives, and provocations that will sustain advocacy as a shared practice. Advocacy is not a moment, but a movement.

NIHD is the vehicle and we’ve given you the keys. How will you choose to drive it toward urgent and meaningful change? 

This is my invitation to you: be the messenger.