Healthcare Disparities

Send us Fan MailThis month, we welcome Chimeria Terrell, a registered nurse at Pittsburgh Mercy, and the owner of Steel City Healthcare Training. A Pittsburgh native, Chimeria grew up in the Beechview neighborhood of the city and graduated from Pittsburgh CAPA high school. Chimeria completed her ADN at CCAC South Campus in 2013 before graduating with a BSN in 2018 from Western Governors University.Chimeria has been practicing nursing at her long-time employer Pittsburgh Mercy where she supports and cares for patients with mental health diagnoses and intellectual disabilities. While working at Pittsburgh Mercy, Chimeria discovered a new passion, during her time leading weekly health and wellness groups. This passion was education. She found that educating people about the importance of health and wellness extremely rewarding. In 2020, Chimeria was inspired to open her company Steel City Healthcare Training where she could instruct life saving techniques to both healthcare workers and lay rescuers.To date, Chimeria has trained more than 2000 people in CPR/First Aid. She has added active shooter, OSHA workplace safety training, and other safety trainings to her course offerings.When she is not caring for and educating the masses, Chimeria enjoys spending time with her 3 sons Tayshaun, Jayden, and Kyren, being a die-hard foodie, reading, and traveling with her family. Each month we share stories and individual experiences from the intersections of race and disability while exploring healing + wellness tools for mind and body.Disabled But Not Really's mission is to empower and inspire individuals with disabilities to overcome challenges and reach their potential by fostering a mindset of courage, confidence, and competence. They aim to educate individuals and their communities on ways to help improve the overall quality of life for people living with a disability. You can view these episodes with ASL interpretation on Open Up's YouTube channel. Catch episode previews and more information about Sunday Safe Spaces and other Open Up programming by following us on social media @openuppgh.