By June, Jazmine Locklear will have presented five times on improving health outcomes for members of the Lumbee Tribe.
Locklear, a student in the accelerated (16 month) Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN) program at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), is excited about the health care possibilities that opened in December 2025 when Congress fully recognized the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.
“The passage is something we have been waiting for a long time,” Locklear said.
She most recently presented in mid-March at the Creating Healthy Work Environments conference in Washington, D.C., organized by Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Locklear was one of three NCCU nursing students who presented.
The Lumbee Tribe has 55,000 members and is primarily located in the counties of Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland and Scotland in North Carolina. That makes it the ninth largest tribe in the United States and the largest east of the Mississippi River.
The Lumbee Tribe was recognized by the state of North Carolina in 1865 and received partial federal recognition in 1956.
“Several administrations had promised (full) recognition, and we were visited several times by presidential candidates who promised it, but no one came through on it,” Locklear said.
While there is medical care in the four primarily rural counties, many of the low-income members of the Lumbee Tribe either don’t possess cars or must drive up to two hours for treatment, she said. They also must worry about medical bills.
Certainly, the need is there. There is a 34% prevalence of diabetes among members of the Lumbee Tribe, Locklear said. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension are common.
With full federal recognition comes money to improve health outcomes. Those could include grants to start clinics, provide basic medical devices such as home blood pressure kits, chronic disease prevention and management, home health care and creating a nursing workforce pipeline to train “culturally competent nurses.”
“We have to start at the root of the problem and have health education that is understandable and culturally appropriate,” Locklear said.
Locklear was mentored by Janice Collins-McNeil, Ph.D., an associate professor of nursing and Yolanda Vanriel, Ph.D., chair of the nursing department. They also mentored student nurse Hailey Turner.
Rising Stars
This is the first time nursing students from NCCU presented at the Creating Healthy Work Environments, an international conference, said Collins-McNeil.
“They were selected as rising stars,” said Collins-McNeil. “Sigma Theta Tau put out a call for abstracts. They submitted abstracts and were selected.”
Among the student presenters was Turner, who is scheduled to graduate in May 2027. She presented on the most recent guidelines on hypertension (high blood pressure) by the American Heart Association.
“It can lead to things like heart disease, stroke, heart attack,” said Turner. “It’s a high burden among African American people in North Carolina and the United States.”
This was Turner’s first medical presentation outside a classroom. “I was pretty nervous but also pretty excited,” she said.
Her classmate Noa Leger, who will graduate in May 2026, presented on optimizing breast cancer screenings strategies for high-risk women. Her presentation evolved out of summer fellowship at Duke University, where she conducted research with two doctoral students and faculty.
“We want to educate patients and figure out what causes them not to get screened,” Leger said.