Nursing honor society, no honor at the top? Sigma removes CEO in racism crisis
FNA News| Lagos, Nigeria | September 2026
Sigma Nursing, the international honor society still known to many as Sigma Theta Tau, has removed its chief executive after leaked private communications triggered a crisis of trust across the profession.
The board announced a “leadership change, effective immediately” on 18 September and said it had begun searching for an interim chief executive. It did not name Lucas M. “Luke” Davis. It did not say whether he was sacked or resigned. It released no findings.
For an organisation built on the words love, courage and honor, that silence is now the story.
What is known
Davis was placed on paid administrative leave on 14 September. An external lawyer was hired. Sigma later said he was no longer carrying out CEO duties. Jason Allen was identified as CEO-designate for day-to-day operations.
The crisis began when private communications and audio attributed to Davis circulated online. They were published by journalist Terace Evette Coleman Garnier. People who have seen the material say it includes a racial slur, sexualised slavery language, and a remark about wanting to own enslaved people.
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Sigma says it has not authenticated those communications. Davis has not issued a public response.
The organisation still condemned the language attributed to him.
“The language and behavior attributed in the communications being shared publicly are inconsistent with Sigma Nursing’s values of love, courage, and honor,” Sigma said.
“There is no place for racism, dehumanizing language, or behavior that undermines the dignity of others within our organization.”
That statement was precise. It was also incomplete. Members asked a harder question: if the material is unverified, why was the CEO removed? If it is serious enough to remove him, why will the board not say so plainly?
What nurses are saying
The reaction among nurses has been fast, public and angry.
Black nurses have been the clearest voices. Dr Cambria Nwosu, a legal nurse consultant, refused to treat the episode as a one-off personnel problem.
“Racism in nursing affects whose competence is questioned, who is disciplined, who advances, whose concerns are ignored, and how Black patients are treated,” she said.
“Sigma owes Black nurses transparent findings, not another carefully worded diversity statement.”
That argument has landed because it matches what many Black nurses already live. A National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing survey found that 92% of Black nurse respondents reported workplace racism, and 70% said it came from leaders. In 2022 the American Nurses Association apologised for historically excluding Black nurses. This scandal did not invent that history. It walked into it.
On social media, members have been blunter than any press office.
“As a member, I am disgusted,” one nurse wrote. Another said: “No more membership for us.” A third said a mentor had just asked them to join Sigma. The reply was immediate: “Absolutely not.”
Advocacy reports say Black nurses and allies have begun sharing instructions on how to cancel membership and have called for dues refunds. That is not yet a formal, organised global boycott with published numbers. It is something Sigma should fear more: members deciding, one renewal at a time, that the brand no longer buys honor.
A second leak has sharpened that anger. Reports circulating among nurse investigators describe an internal staff meeting in which employees allegedly discussed dismissing Black staff and keeping it quiet so membership would not fall. Sigma has not confirmed that recording, Members heard the alleged motive anyway: protect the dues.
Honor societies run on prestige. Prestige runs on fees. When nurses believe their subscriptions are funding an institution that fears their exit more than their harm, trust collapses.
Why this cuts deeper than one executive
Sigma is not a union and not a regulator. It is something more fragile. It invites high-achieving students and recognised nurse leaders. It sells belonging. It tells inductees they have been seen.
Davis was appointed in August 2024 as a non-nurse association executive. That choice was framed as operational strength. In a racism crisis, it now looks like a governance gap. The people who wear the cords did not hear from a nurse in the chief executive’s chair. They heard from a board that spoke of “rebuilding trust” without first proving it had earned any.
The contradiction is brutal. Nursing is repeatedly named the most trusted profession. Sigma exists to honour the best of that profession. If the top of the honor society cannot withstand sunlight, the invitation itself starts to look cheap.
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Members are not only asking whether Davis said those words. They are asking who knew, who ignored earlier complaints, who gets paid if he leaves, and whether Black staff were treated as a reputational risk rather than as colleagues. Reports that his contract included a large severance provision have added to the sense that accountability, if it comes, may still be expensive for the organisation and cheap for the man at the centre of it. Those contract details have not been confirmed in audited public filings reviewed here. They are part of the fury because they sound familiar: institutions protect themselves first.
What Sigma must do if it wants members back
Paid leave is not transparency. An unnamed “leadership change” is not accountability. An external lawyer is not the same as an independent investigation whose scope, reporting line and findings are published.
Nurses paying chapter dues have a right to answers in plain language:
- Are the communications authentic?
- What did the investigation find?
- Was Davis dismissed, and on what terms?
- Were Black employees pushed out, and was membership risk part of that discussion?
- Will members who want to leave get a clean exit, and will those who stay get more than another values statement?
Until those questions are answered, the boycott talk will grow for a simple reason. Nurses do not need Sigma to practise. Sigma needs nurses to exist.
The honor society can survive a CEO. It cannot survive the belief that honor is a ceremony, not a standard.
FNA News will continue to monitor developments and provide updates as they emerge.
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Fellow Nurses Africa is the independent voice of African nursing, we educate, inform and support nurses across Africa.
Kehinde Oluwatosin is one of the many editors here at Fellow Nurses Africa and fellownurses.com.
He is a registered nurse with a Master of Science degree in healthcare leadership from the University of Hull, United Kingdom. Kehinde is passionate about advancing the nursing profession across Africa. As Co-Founder of Fellow Nurses Africa, he plays a key role in shaping editorial direction, ensuring our content educates, informs, and empowers nurses continent-wide.
With expertise in leadership, patient flow, and healthcare operations, Kehinde brings valuable insights to nursing news, career development, and policy discussions. He is committed to amplifying the voice of African nurses and driving positive change in the profession.
