Angelica
Walton
May 2026
Angelica
Walton
,
DNP, RN, CCRN, RYT
University of Minnesota School of Nursing
Minneapolis
,
MN
United States
By designing immersive experiences—ranging from interprofessional global health programs in Cuba to leadership delegations at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women—she ensures students can bridge the gap between hyperlocal practice and global policy.
It is my distinct pleasure to nominate Dr. Angelica Walton, DNP, RN, RYT, Clinical Assistant
Professor, for the “Out of the Box Thinking DAISY Award.” This award recognizes faculty who demonstrate creative and novel approaches to understanding nursing. Dr. Walton consistently exceeds through her transformative approach to pedagogy and systems thinking. As a dedicated educator and mentor, she extends nursing content far beyond traditional clinical boundaries, challenging students to synthesize the vital connections between environmental systems, policy, healing, justice, and leadership.
Dr. Walton has introduced substantive innovation into our curriculum by moving ecologically
minded learning from elective content to a foundational pillar of nursing practice. She authored and disseminated the Eco Social Partnership Framework for Learning, which integrates somatic awareness, systems mapping, and Indigenous-informed place-based knowledge into our core nursing curricula. This framework is now embedded across undergraduate, graduate, and interprofessional programs, where it is applied in quality improvement and research projects. Her commitment to reframing global health is further evidenced by her revisions to NURS 6600, where she embedded environmental determinants of health and regenerative systems design into interactive health system analysis. By designing immersive experiences—ranging from interprofessional global health programs in Cuba to leadership delegations at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women—she ensures students can bridge the gap between hyperlocal practice and global policy.
Her transformative teaching style facilitates deep synthesis and critical inquiry by challenging students to examine their assumptions about care, power, and health systems. Dr. Walton’s pedagogy incorporates creative embodied learning and the cultivation of inner development to help students understand stress physiology and relational regulation somatically. These exercises build the leadership capacity and self-awareness necessary for students to respond effectively to high-intensity clinical and advocacy environments. Furthermore, her use of nature-based "eco-health quest retreats" and structured systems mapping enables learners to identify direct links among environmental degradation, social inequity, and clinical outcomes. Rather than focusing on rote memorization, her approach fosters a regenerative design mindset in which students co-create care models informed by narrative scholarship and lived experience.
The holistic impact of Dr. Walton’s work is structurally embedded across our curriculum design and her scholarly dissemination, including 22 national and international presentations on regenerative pedagogy. She effectively prepares a new generation of nurses to navigate high-stress, complex systems with resilience and clarity while maintaining a commitment to equitable models of care. By teaching students to see nursing as both intimate and systemic, she profoundly expands both the substance and the spirit of nursing education.
Dr. Walton is actively serving on multiple university and school of nursing committees, including the Director of the Center for Planetary Health and Environmental Justice, the Director for Research and Scholarship, North American Council Planetary Health Alliance, the Chair of Resilient Communities, Southeast RSDP, and UMN Extension. She possesses a positive attitude and “can-do” approach in all of her interactions. I am grateful for her many contributions to the School of Nursing. I fully support Dr. Angelica Walton as a recipient of the “Out of the Box Thinking DAISY award.
Professor, for the “Out of the Box Thinking DAISY Award.” This award recognizes faculty who demonstrate creative and novel approaches to understanding nursing. Dr. Walton consistently exceeds through her transformative approach to pedagogy and systems thinking. As a dedicated educator and mentor, she extends nursing content far beyond traditional clinical boundaries, challenging students to synthesize the vital connections between environmental systems, policy, healing, justice, and leadership.
Dr. Walton has introduced substantive innovation into our curriculum by moving ecologically
minded learning from elective content to a foundational pillar of nursing practice. She authored and disseminated the Eco Social Partnership Framework for Learning, which integrates somatic awareness, systems mapping, and Indigenous-informed place-based knowledge into our core nursing curricula. This framework is now embedded across undergraduate, graduate, and interprofessional programs, where it is applied in quality improvement and research projects. Her commitment to reframing global health is further evidenced by her revisions to NURS 6600, where she embedded environmental determinants of health and regenerative systems design into interactive health system analysis. By designing immersive experiences—ranging from interprofessional global health programs in Cuba to leadership delegations at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women—she ensures students can bridge the gap between hyperlocal practice and global policy.
Her transformative teaching style facilitates deep synthesis and critical inquiry by challenging students to examine their assumptions about care, power, and health systems. Dr. Walton’s pedagogy incorporates creative embodied learning and the cultivation of inner development to help students understand stress physiology and relational regulation somatically. These exercises build the leadership capacity and self-awareness necessary for students to respond effectively to high-intensity clinical and advocacy environments. Furthermore, her use of nature-based "eco-health quest retreats" and structured systems mapping enables learners to identify direct links among environmental degradation, social inequity, and clinical outcomes. Rather than focusing on rote memorization, her approach fosters a regenerative design mindset in which students co-create care models informed by narrative scholarship and lived experience.
The holistic impact of Dr. Walton’s work is structurally embedded across our curriculum design and her scholarly dissemination, including 22 national and international presentations on regenerative pedagogy. She effectively prepares a new generation of nurses to navigate high-stress, complex systems with resilience and clarity while maintaining a commitment to equitable models of care. By teaching students to see nursing as both intimate and systemic, she profoundly expands both the substance and the spirit of nursing education.
Dr. Walton is actively serving on multiple university and school of nursing committees, including the Director of the Center for Planetary Health and Environmental Justice, the Director for Research and Scholarship, North American Council Planetary Health Alliance, the Chair of Resilient Communities, Southeast RSDP, and UMN Extension. She possesses a positive attitude and “can-do” approach in all of her interactions. I am grateful for her many contributions to the School of Nursing. I fully support Dr. Angelica Walton as a recipient of the “Out of the Box Thinking DAISY award.