Seattle U

Alic Shook, PhD, RN — Faculty ; Associate Professor, College of Nursing and Health Sciences ; College of Nursing & Health Sciences ; Areas of Expertise: Pediatrics | LGBTQ + Health | Qualitative Methods | Discourse in Healthcare .

Profile Type:

Associate Professor
Premera Endowed Professor in Health Promotion & Care Innovations
Prelicensure Clinical Specialty Lead (Pediatrics)

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  2. Alic Shook, PhD, RN

Pediatric nurse, educator, and scholar advancing pediatric health equity through research, education, and leadership focused on children, families, and healthcare systems.

Biography

Alic Shook, PhD, RN, is an Associate Professor of Nursing and Premera Endowed Professor in Health Promotion & Care Innovations in the College of Nursing & Health Sciences, where he also serves as the Prelicensure Clinical Specialty Lead for Pediatrics.

Dr. Shook’s scholarship focuses on pediatric health equity, with particular attention to how healthcare systems, policies, and professional practices shape children’s experiences and access to care. Drawing on qualitative, participatory, and community-engaged approaches, his research examines questions of ethics, autonomy, and discrimination.  His work has addressed transgender health, adolescent health, HIV, and other areas where social and structural conditions profoundly influence health and healthcare. He is currently working on a book project examining human milk sharing across cultures, histories, and communities.  The project uses milk sharing as a lens for exploring how societies understand and organize care, responsibility, risk, and access to resources around the profound vulnerability of infancy.

His research has been supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Fulbright Program, and Seattle Children’s Center for Pediatric Nursing Research, in addition to university-based pilot funding, including two Summer Faculty Fellowships and a Global Research Grant from Seattle University.

With clinical roots in pediatric emergency, hematology-oncology, and global health settings, Dr. Shook bridges bedside insight with scholarly leadership spanning pediatric health, nursing, bioethics, health equity, and healthcare policy.  He holds affiliate appointments with Seattle Children’s Center for Pediatric Nursing Research and the University of Washington Department of Bioethics & Humanities and frequently contributes to national discussions on pediatric health, health disparities, and healthcare access.

Education

  • 2020. Doctor of Philosophy, Nursing. University of Washington, Seattle, WA
  • 2019-2020. Fellow, Leadership Education in Adolescent Health. Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle
  • 2013. Bachelor of Science, Nursing. Goldfarb School of Nursing, Barnes-Jewish College, Saint Louis, MO
  • 2005-2006. Fulbright Fellow, Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Southeast Asian Studies Program, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 2005. Bachelor of Arts, English, Minor:  Ethnic Studies; cum laude. Mills College, Oakland, CA

Courses Taught

  • NURS4190 Promoting the Health of Children & Families
  • NURS4590 Populations & Communities
     

Publications

Refereed Journal Articles, Data-based

Baker, A, DeAtley, T, Ogunbajo, A, Lucas, R, Dusic, E, Gutiérrez, JMG., Shook, A. ... & Restar, A. (2025). Impact of structurally transphobic policy environment on harmful alcohol and substance use among transgender and nonbinary adults. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 43218.

Shook A, Lucas, R, Liang C, Tordoff D, Skytta JAF, Kientz JA, Altman MR, Ahrens K.  (2025). Lessons learned from navigating challenges with IRB review in community engaged research with transgender youth in the United States.  Ethics & Human Research.  In press.

Lucas, R, Dusic, E, Garcia Gutierrez, JM, Bambilla, A, Suen, D, Widmann, N, Martin, A, Shook, A, Karrington, B…& Restar, A.  (2025).  Access to Gender-Affirming Care is Positively Associated with Uptake of STI Testing.  Sexual Health 22, SH24238.  doi:10.1071/SH24238.

Correll-King WM, Dusic EJ, Suen D, Gamarel KE, Shook A, & Restar AJ. (2025). Healthcare avoidance and delay among trans adults: Associations with mental and behavioral health outcomes. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 68(4), 726-734.

Restar, A, Layland, EK, Hughes, L, Dusic, E, Lucas, R, Bambilla, AJ, Widmann, NM, Suen D, Martin A, Shook A, Schwarz D... & Kershaw, T. (2024).  Antitrans Policy Environment and Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Transgender and Nonbinary Adults. JAMA Network Open, 7(8), e2431306-e2431306.

Shook A, Tordoff D, St. Pierre-Nelson W, Clark A, Hardwick R, Kantrowitz-Gordon, I.  (2024). “Age, Autonomy, and Authority of Knowledge:  The Role of Consent in Regulating Access to Care for Transgender Youth Under 18”.  Journal of Adolescent Research, 39(1), 104-132.

Liang, C, Ahrens, K, Shook, A, Altman, M, Kientz, Lucas, R. (2024).  Co-designing an Online Healthy Relationship Tool With a Nationally Representative Advisory Board of Transgender and Gender Expansive Youth.  Journal of Adolescent Health, 74(3), S90-91.

Tordoff, DM, Minalga, B, Trejo, A, Shook, A, Kerani, RP, & Herbeck, JT. (2023). Lessons learned from community engagement regarding phylodynamic research with molecular HIV surveillance data. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 26 (Suppl. 1), Article e26111. 

Shook A, Tordoff D, St. Pierre-Nelson W, Clark A, Hardwick R, Kantrowitz-Gordon, I.  (2022).  “Trans Youth Talk Back:  A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of Transgender Minors’ Accounts of Healthcare Access”.  Qualitative Health Research, 32(11), 1672-1689.

Shook A, Buskin S, Golden M, Dombrowski J, Herbeck J, Lechtenberg R, Kerani R.  (2022).  “Community and Provider Perspectives on Molecular HIV Surveillance and Cluster Detection and Response for HIV Prevention:  Qualitative Findings from King County, Washington”.  Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, 33(3), 270-282

Tordoff D, Sequeira GM, Shook A, Williams F, Hayden L, Kasenic A, Inwards-Breland D, Ahrens K.  (2022). “Factors associated with time to receiving gender affirming hormones and puberty blockers at a pediatric clinic serving transgender and non-binary youth”.  Transgender Health, 8(5), 420-428.

Tordoff D, Gridley Haley S, Shook A, Kantor A, Crouch J, Ahrens K.  (2020).  “Talk About Bodies:  Recommendations for Using Transgender Inclusive Language in Sex Education Curriculums”.  Sex Roles, 84, 152-165.

Knight KR, Das M, Demicco E, Raiford JL, Matheson T, Shook A, Antunez E, Santos GM, Dadasovich R, Dilley JW, Colfax GN, Herbst JH. (2014).  “A Roadmap for Adapting an Evidence-Based HIV Prevention Intervention: Personal Cognitive Counseling (PCC) for Episodic Substance-Using Men Who Have Sex With Men.”  Prevention Science, 15(3), 364-75.

Refereed Journal Articles, Other

Rosa WE, Harley K, Hassmiller S, Bennett S, Breen K, Frisch S, Goldberg J, Koschmann K, Missel A, Parekh de Campos A, Pho A, Rausch J, Shook A, Schlak A, Tierney M, Umberfield E, Fairman J.A. (2022).  Three-year nursing PhD model recommendations from the RWJF Future of Nursing Scholars.  Journal of Nursing Education, 61(1), 19-28.

Rosa W, Shook A, Acquaviva K.  (2020).  “LGBTQ+ Inclusive Palliative Care in the Context of COVID-19:  Pragmatic Recommendations for Clinicians.”  Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 60(2), e44-e47.

Refereed Book Chapters

Shook A, Espina C, Narruhn R.  (2023).  Suffering Among the Overlooked, Unseen, and Systematically Excluded.  In B. Rosa & B. Ferrell (Eds.).  The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing (2nd Ed.).  Oxford University Press.

Editorials and Commentaries

Rosa, WE, Metheny, N, Shook, A, Adedimeji, AA  (2023).  Safeguarding LGBTQ+ lives in an epoch of abandonment.  The Lancet Global Health, 11(9), e1329-e1330.

Minalga, B, Chung, C, Davids, JD, Martin, A, Perry, NL, & Shook, A.   (2022).  Research on transgender people must benefit transgender people.  The Lancet, 399(10325), 628.