KINGSTON, R.I. — April 8, 2026 — Focusing on the practice of “well-becoming”—the process of flourishing and striving toward well-being—from a health care standpoint, University of Rhode Island College of Nursing Dean Danny Willis will deliver the keynote address at the Ethics of Caring national conference April 16-17 at the University of California Los Angeles’ Luskin Conference Center.
“Ethics of Caring: Building a Moral Community” invites all health care professionals to “explore the intersection of healthcare practice and ethical considerations in patient care. The 2026 National Nursing Ethics Conference continues to provide a foundation for moral community where dialogue, reflection, skill-building, exploration, growth, and flourishing combine to sustain these goals. Come join us to learn together how to intentionally collaborate, build relationships, and engage in respectful dialogue in a nurturing environment in which to grow and sustain ethical care.”
Founded in 1993, the Ethics of Caring conference brings together nurses and other health care professionals from multiple facilities to support frontline workers and explore ethic issues in health care. The organization holds an annual National Nursing Ethics Conference, exposing attendees to national leaders, clinicians, researchers, and educators in ethics, and fostering discussion on ethical and moral dilemmas in health care.
Willis, who will also lead a workshop on nursing ethics during the conference, has a history of conducting research on healing and well-being, and incorporating the science and art of caring into the curriculum at URI, and routinely advocates for the practice of “well-becoming” and the Theory of Human Caring developed by Dr. Jean Watson, founder of Center for Human Caring and the Watson Caring Science Institute.
“We have an opportunity to evolve with the times using our situations and experiences as leverage for betterment and transcending current states,” Willis said while hosting the International Association for Human Caring annual conference last summer. “Nurse leaders who are committed to transforming well-being and environments can hold well-becoming for all as a high ethical commitment in support of all people’s highest evolution. The role of nursing is clear. Our discipline, and therefore our profession, is focused on wholeness, well-being, humanization, consciousness, relationship, pattern, meaning and purpose, caring, healing, environments, and transcending. Nursing, as a caring-healing profession, provides a much-needed transforming presence in the world.”
Ahead of his keynote presentation, Willis met with organizers of the Ethics of Caring conference to detail his address and discuss morality and ethics in health care.