Pearl Holland’s gift and passion for community health nursing found roots and grew in a grant-funded research project over forty-three years ago in 1966. Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing from Hampton University in 1664, Holland was hired as a Public Health Nurse in a grant-funded Community-based Children and Youth (C&Y) Developmental Program in Baltimore City. This program, funded by the Children’s Defense Fund, provided comprehensive acute and preventive health services in a poor inner-city community. Providing multi-disciplinary, integrated services in the heart of the targeted community was a new concept that unleashed Holland’s broad nursing knowledge, skills and abilities, and her passion for community health nursing as a professional career path. It also led to Holland obtaining a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University in 1977.

Subsequently, Holland was promoted to the Director of Nursing in the C&Y Program. During fourteen years of leadership in the C&Y program, Holland was able to empower and influence the growth and development of nurses and the community by envisioning and implementing nurse-based services and interventions to address the needs of the homeless, senior/adult health, high risk infants, lead poisoning prevention, child and adolescent health. Holland’s competence as a leader and broad insight as a public Health practitioner were assets when she accepted a position as Director of Public Health Nursing in a large metropolitan county health department to plan and direct nursing services to foster healthier communities. This position remained a dynamic experience for twenty-seven years wherein she provided administrative leadership for a nursing bureau that aimed to “help individuals/families help themselves” through information, education, advocacy, direct service, guidance, and support across the life span and economic strata in a multi-disciplinary environment.

Holland’s teaching/educational interest was further utilized on the Continuing Education Committee, Public Health Nursing Section of American Public Health Association (APHA) where she served as chairperson for eleven years. Her passion for community/public health was nurtured while serving as Adjunct Professor in the Nursing Department at Towson University and Coppin State University. Teaching the application of public health principles and practices to senior nursing students in a clinical setting was a culminating experience to Pearl Holland’s career. Empowering others to achieve optimal health was the hallmark of her forty-three years in Public Health/Community Health.

Among her active group memberships in social and civic organizations, Holland has been an active member of Chi Eta Phi Sorority, Inc. for many years and has served at the local and National level in elected and appointed positions.