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Doctoral Program

Doctoral Faculty

Debra J. Barksdale, PhD, RN, CFNP, CANP
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Cardiovascular Health and Responses; Hypertension; Cortisol; Stress and Coping; Biobehavioral research methods; Black American adults; Diversity and discrimination in Health Care; Care of families and the underserved; Spirituality and health

Current Studies:

Linda Beeber, PhD, RN, CS
Professor

Research Interests: Depression in mothers of young children; Interventions for depressive symptoms; Psych-mental health nursing; Depression in women with HIV disease; General linear models; Diversity and inclusiveness in nursing

Current Studies:

Diane Berry, PhD, CANP
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Depression in mothers of young children; Interventions for depressive symptoms; Psych-mental health nursing; Depression in women with HIV disease; General linear models; Diversity and inclusiveness in nursing

Current Studies:

Barbara Waag Carlson, PhD, RN
Assistant Professor & Associate Director, Biobehavioral Lab

Research Interests: Physiological signal processing/analysis; EEG sleep and arousal in older adults; Respiratory periodicity during sleep; Patterns of cardiovascular stability during sleep; Neurocognitive measures and assessment; Cerebral oxygenation in sleep; Biological markers of memory impairment and cognitive decline in older adults

Current Studies:

Susan A. Brunssen , PhD, RN
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Perinatal infection, inflammation & very preterm birth; Hypoxia/ischemia & neuroinflammatory injury; Inflammation and neurological outcomes of very preterm infants; Neurodevelopmental disorders of children; Cytokines, growth factors, neurotransmitters; Biomolecular methods & imaging techniques; Behavioral methods, rodent and human; Observational methods

Linda Cronenwett, PhD, RN, FAAN
Dean & Professor

Research Interests: Effects of administrative contexts on quality of care; Use of improvement science methods

Jennifer Piersma D'Auria, PhD, RN, CPNP
Associate Professor & Director, Master's Programs

Research Interests: Primary care of children; Chronic illness in children; Bibliometrics; Nursing Education; Web-based learning and design of educational strategies; Evidence-based outcomes

Noreen Esposito, EdD, WHNP, FNP
MSN Coordinator, Women's Health Care Nurse Practitioner

Research Interests: Violence against women and sexual assault; Substance abuse in women; Discrimination and health outcomes; Minority/underserved/vulnerable women and access to care Hispanic women's health and menopause; Qualitative research, ethnography, focus groups

Current Studies:

Cathie Fogel, Ph.D, RNC (WHCNP), FAAN
Professor

Research Interests: Health promotion/disease prevention for disadvantaged women and incarcerated women; Preterm labor risk assessment and prevention; STD/AIDS prevention for incarcerated women; Pregnant prisoners; Weight reduction in incarcerated women; Violence and women prisoners

Current Studies:

Barbara Jo Foley, PhD, RN, FAAN
Clinical Professor & Academic Division II Chair

Research Interests: Advocacy by nurses on behalf of patients; Negotiating within complex organizations; Nurse-Influenced Patient Outcomes; Administrative and management skills; Military nursing; Continuing Education

Current Studies:

Sandy Funk, PhD. FAAN
Professor, Associate Dean for Research & Director, Research Support Center

Research Interests: Research dissemination and utilization; Applied measurement and psychometrics; Research facilitation; Chronic illness; Preschool developmental screening

Barbara Germino, PhD, RN, FAAN
Carol Ann Beerstecher-Blackwell Chair of Thanatology and Professor

Research Interests: Psychosocial responses to cancer-family; Death and dying--adults and families; Chronic illness-psychosocial aspects; Quality of life --research issues; Life-threatening illness--psychosocial responses

Current Studies:

Jean Goeppinger, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor

Research Interests: Community based intervention; Arthritis; Chronic illness management in the community; Health promotion and primary prevention; Community capacity building interventions; Culturally competent community-based interventions; Rural health; Health disparity; Participatory research approaches

Current Studies:

Edward J. Halloran, PhD, RN, FAAN
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Nurse staffing & patient classification; Severity of illness; Measurement of nursing care costs at patient, ward, institution and national levels; Genesis of nursing - from Nightingale to Henderson; American Civil War disease mortality reductions; Care of the dying; Development of modern nursing in China; Yale nurses

Joanne Harrell, PhD, RN, FAAN
Frances Hill Fox Professor

Research Interests: Interventions to improve cardiovascular health; Energy expenditure of common activities of children and adolescents; Physiologic variables in research; School-based research; Risk factors for heart disease; Assessment of lipid profiles in children, adolescents and adults; Assessment of smoking prevalence in children and adolescents; Obesity and Type 2 diabetes mellitus in children and adolescents

Current Studies:

Donna S. Havens, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor

Research Interests: Hospital organization and outcomes; Evidence-based management and organization; Staff nurse decisional involvement; Magnet Hospitals; Translating organizational research into practice; The nursing work environment; Implementation research

Current Studies:

Cheryl B. Jones, PhD, RN, FAAN
Associate Professor and MSN Coordinator, Health Care Systems

Research Interests: Nursing & health care systems; Quality & patient safety; Cost, quality, & outcomes of health services; Economics of care delivery; Nursing work environment; Health services research

Current Studies:

Diane Kjervik, JD, RN, FAAN
Professor & Division Chair

Research Interests: Nursing law and ethics; Informed consent and the elderly; Mental health law and ethics; Policy and nursing; End of life decision-making; Advance directives; Women’s issues

Jennifer Leeman, DrPH, MDIV
Research Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Translating research to practice; Implementing change in practice; Disseminating research findings; Managing diabetes

Current Studies:

Mary Lynn, PhD
Professor

Research Interests: Psychometrics and evaluation; Definition and measurement of quality of care; Statistical and research methods; Work satisfaction; Organizational commitment; Patient-centered intervention; Patients’ expectations; Outcomes measurement; Predicting success in undergraduate nursing program

Current Studies:

Barbara Mark, PhD, RN, FAAN
Sarah Frances Russell Professor

Research Interests: Organization of acute care health systems; Organization theory; Outcomes and patient safety research

Current Studies:

Chris McQuiston, PhD, RN, FNP
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Gender roles and migration; Community-based research; Culture specific HIV interventions for Latinos; Lay (community) models of illness; Participatory action research; Empowering approaches training (Frierian)

Current Studies:

Margaret S. Miles, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor

Research Interests: caregiving for seriously ill children; parenting by mothers with HIV; parental role attainment with medically fragile infants; bereavement; organ-donor families; mothers of preterm infants; mothers with HIV; parenting the child with a life-threatening illness

Current Studies:

Merle Mishel, PhD, RN, FAAN
Kenan Professor of Nursing & Director, Doctoral and Post-doctoral Programs

Research Interests: Middle range theories; Theory of uncertainty in illness; Uncertainty in illness scales; Uncertainty management interventions with cancer patients; Uncertainty in chronic illness; Theory-based interventions; Experimental designs; Psychosocial theories in acute and chronic illness; Psycho-educational interventions for the chronically ill

Current Studies:

Virginia Neelon, PhD, RN
Associate Professor & Director, Biobehavioral Laboratory

Research Interests: Delirium/Acute confusion & chronic cognitive impairment in older adults -measurement and intervention; Role of hypoxic challenge in sleep and cognitive decline in older adults; Physiology of aging; The study of biobehavioral markers of vulnerability; Development of non-invasive methods of measuring physiologic responses; Biobehavioral markers of vulnerability & resilience; Biobehavioral measures of intervention effect

Current Studies:

Marilyn Oermann, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF
Professor & Adult/Geriatric Health Chair

Research Interests: Dissemination of research in the clinical nursing literature; Evidence-based practice; Clinical teaching methods and evaluation

Mary H. Palmer, PhD, RNC, FAAN
Umphlet Distinguished Professor in Aging

Research Interests: Aging; Long-term care; Older adults in acute care; Urinary continence in adults; Gerontology/Geriatrics; Health promotion

Current Studies:

Pamela Johnson Rowsey, PhD, RN
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Neuroendocrine and immunopeptide regulation of body temperature; Cytokines, exercise, injury and illness; Organophosphate insecticide-induced changes in core temperature; Chemical vulnerability and the Gulf-War Syndromes

Current Studies:

Margarete Sandelowski, PhD, RN, FAAN
Cary C. Boshamer Professor

Research Interests: Reproductive technology; Psychosocial, cultural, ethical issues; Technology in nursing; History, philosophy; Qualitative methodology

Current Studies:

Gwen Sherwood, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Research Interests: Caring; Pain relief; Nursing administration

Anne Skelly, PhD, RN, ANP-C
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Type 2 diabetes in African-American women; Coping, social support and stress

Current Studies:

Suzanne Thoyre, PhD, RN
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Co-regulatory mechanisms of feeding and growth of preterm infants; Maternal working models of feeding co-regulation; Physiologic regulation during feeding in preterms; Observational coding; Biobehavioral measures; Feeding issues for children with Down syndrome

Current Studies:

Debbie Travers, PhD, RN, FAEN
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Emergency department triage; Triage acuity scales for the emergency department; Triage of pediatric patients in the emergency department; Informatics; Syndromic and public health surveillance; Secondary uses of routinely collected health data; Processing of free text data and standardization of health data

Current Studies:

Marcia Van Riper, PhD, RN
Chair, Family Health Division

Research Interests: Families of children with developmental disabilities; Ethical implications of genetic testing; Children with Down Syndrome and their families; Family experience of a genetic condition; Family-provider relationships; Ethical issues in genetic testing; Feeding issues for children with Down syndrome; Siblings; Genetic testing in minority families

Current Studies:

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