Nursing doctoral student Holly Edwards, a former Charlottesville vice mayor, died Jan. 7. She was laid to rest at Holly Memorial Gardens Jan. 12.
“She could connect people to one another who might not think that they need each other or might not understand how mutually beneficial it is for them to work together,” Jeanita Richardson, associate professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, said. “And [she did this] always with the eye towards social justice.”
In addition to her studies, Edwards was involved in the Charlottesville community, serving as a parish nurse at the Westhaven and Crescent Hall Clinics and as the program coordinator for the Public Housing Association of Residents. She was a lifetime member of the NAACP and served on City Council from 2008-11.
At the University, Edwards both pursued a doctorate degree and served as a clinical instructor.
Nursing Prof. Susan Kools, who also served as Edwards’ doctoral advisor, said Edwards researched the health outcomes of people aging in place in public housing for her dissertation.
“She took care of people wherever they were and really took that on as her calling,” Kools said. “She was really very passionate about the health disparities that the African-American community in Charlottesville experiences, even in the shadow of our University.”
As an instructor, Edwards influenced both students and faculty, holding both to a high standard of accountability, Richardson said.
“It was frequent that students would show up at the Westhaven Clinic … and seek her advice and pitch ideas to her about how to improve life in the community but to learn whatever was relevant to the course they were taking,” Richardson said. “She would be the person who students would go to find out who they should talk to, what the respectful way to engage with the community [was, and] what the accountability should be within the community after the work has concluded.”
Kools said Westhaven served as many of the nursing students’ first exposure to health inequities. The experience, Kools said, encouraged many students to become thoughtful nurses in the community.
“She was a great bridge for the School of Nursing into the community here … [and] did this in a way that was very, very graceful and kind,” Kools said. “If you’ve seen pictures of her, she was a very small woman with a giant heart and a giant commitment.”
Edwards received the Drewary Brown Memorial Community Bridge Builders Award Oct. 11, an honor given to Charlottesville residents who have strengthened the sense of community within the city.
“I think that very much sums up her contributions to Charlottesville and the University,” Richardson said. “She was well-respected in all quarters that she functioned — as a public servant, as a clinician, working with the University and also being a doctoral student. Because of her many spheres of influence, she was a masterful bridge builder.”
Edwards was conferred her doctoral degree posthumously. She was supposed to be in Kools’ class Jan. 18, the first day of the semester.
“There’s going to be a hole for a long time, and it’s not going to be filled with one person in the community or one person in the School of Nursing,” Kools said. “There’s just a hole where she had been.”
Kools said Edwards lived by the philosophy of meeting people wherever they were, and led students by her example.
In one 2008 City Council meeting, Edwards advocated for town hall style meetings and said the council needed to be “actually going into the community to find out what the actual needs are.”
Kools cited a quote from Edwards about her work as a clinical instructor in the Nursing School. The quote appeared in a nursing newsletter the week Edwards’ death was announced.
“My classroom may be a community center, a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, a neighborhood clinic, someone’s living room, an aisle at a grocery store, a quiet place in the back of a church after service or a cool shady spot on a summer day,” Edwards once said. “I tell my students that my hope is to simply plant a seed, so that wherever they go to practice nursing, the seed will grow and they will become advocates for those that need health care the most.”
Kools and Richardson both said that there is more work to be done in the community, with Richardson noting that Charlottesville will continue to need bridge builders like Edwards.
“There was no one in the wings like Dr. Edwards,” Richardson said. “She’s going to be missed in ways that people have yet to understand.”
Edwards is survived by her husband, Ken Edwards, and four daughters.
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