Nursing Faculty Experts
Click on a name below for contact information for each faculty expert. If you need additional information, contact:
Dory Hulse
Director of Communications
School of Nursing
(434) 924-0085 - office
(434) 242-1333 - cell
(434) 964-1037 - home
Valentina L. Brashers, MD
Expertise: Dr. Brashers is Vice President for Interdisciplinary Care and a Distinguished Practitioner in the Medicine Academy of the National Academies of Practice. Dr. Brashers brings a special perspective to her teaching role: she completed an academic pulmonary fellowship, spent four years in rural private internal medicine practice, and has taught at the School of Nursing for over 17 years. This background informs her teaching of nursing and medical students that has been recognized with awards for innovation and excellence. Her research focuses on innovative teaching methods to enhance critical thinking, promote clinical application of didactic information, and to promote collaborative practice between nurses and physicians. She is active in the politics of health care reform. She lectures locally, regionally and nationally on pathophysiology with a special emphasis on immunology and lung disease.
Topics: Health Healthcare Reform Immunology Nursing Nurse/Physician Collaboration Pathophysiology Pulmonology
Suzanne Burns, MSN, RN, RRT, ACNP-CS, CCRN, FAAN, FCCM, FAANP
Expertise: Suzi Burns, a Fellow in three professional Academies and a former Director with the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, is a national expert on critical care and pulmonology, especially in the area of ventilation and weaning. She is the inventor of the Burns Wean Assessment and has published extensively on this and related topics. She also is an especially dynamic speaker who has lectured throughout the country and abroad. In addition, she is an expert on evidence-based nursing practice and has been the sparkplug driving the UVA Medical Center’s organized programs in this research. Published results of these studies have generated media attention around the world.
Topics: Critical Care Nursing Health Pulmonology Ventilators and Weaning Evidence-Based Practice
Reba Moyer Childress, MSN, FNP, APRN-BC
Expertise: Ms. Childress is a national and international expert in simulation learning. She is a passionate advocate for incorporating simulation into nursing curricula and for interdisciplinary collaboration, subjects on which she has lectured and published nationally. She served on the National League of Nursing (NLN)/Laerdal National Simulation Task Force. She is the founder of the Virginia State Nursing Simulation Alliance and a founding board member of the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning.
Topics: Nursing Nursing Education Simulation Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Sarah P. Farrell, PhD, APRN, BC
Expertise: Dr. Farrell' scholarship is related to use of technology for access to health care for vulnerable populations. She presents numerous talks on what's hot and what to watch for in teaching with technology. Her teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level also focuses on the clinical applications of technology, informatics and health policy as well as psychiatric mental health nursing. She maintains a blog for Academic Programs and Teaching with Technology.
Topics: Health Nursing Health Policy Informatics Technology Teaching with technology Depression Screening
Doris F. Glick, PhD, RN
Expertise: Dr. Glick is an expert in community and public health nursing programs and issues. Her teaching focuses on community/public health nursing, epidemiology and global health. She has provided leadership for development of online education programs to provide access to nursing students in rural and underserved areas and for working nurses seeking advanced education who cannot readily attend traditional classes. She has also led program development for the School’s new Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. Her research centers on community development, access to care, utilization of services, program evaluation and international health, reflecting her strong interest in the globalization of health issues and the access to care for vulnerable populations.
Topics: Access to Health Care Nursing Distance Learning Epidemiology Global Health Health Public Health
Ann Baile Hamric, PhD, RN, FAAN
Expertise: Dr. Hamric is an active national and international speaker on issues related to advanced practice nursing and ethical dimensions of patient care. She is senior editor of the most widely used graduate text on the subject of advanced nursing roles, Advanced Nursing Practice: An Integrative Approach. She is a strong advocate for interdisciplinary ethics education and practice. Her research deals with moral reasoning and moral behavior of health care providers and she has a particular interest in the phenomenon of moral distress. She is the current President of Patient Access Network Foundation and sits on the board of directors of the Betaseron Foundation.
Topics: Advanced Practice Nursing Nursing Biomedical Ethics Ethics Clinical Nurse Specialist Role Nurse Practitioner Role Within Health Systems
Jeanette Lancaster, PhD, RN, FAAN
Expertise: Nationally and internationally recognized as an authority on community health nursing and as a national leader in nursing policy, Dean Lancaster is also the most senior dean at the University. Her role as Associate Director of Clinical Services in the UVA Health System helps her remain informed about health care practices and provides a forum for her advocacy for education/practice partnerships. Under her aegis, the School of Nursing has launched two new programs – the Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) master’s program and the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program – designed to increase the educational standard for nurses in an increasingly complex health care environment. She has testified before Congress and works with governmental authorities at the State and Federal level to advance support for nursing education. She is regarded as an expert in leadership, change and fundraising for schools of nursing. Dr. Lancaster edits the inter-disciplinary journal Family and Community Health, has edited or co-edited eight nursing textbooks, and presented scores of lectures and workshops.
Topics: Community Health Nursing Nursing Health Leadership Nursing Shortage Nursing Education
Barbara J. Parker, PhD, RN, FAAN
Expertise: Dr. Parker is nationally and internationally recognized as a pioneer in the field of intimate partner violence, especially violence against women, particularly during pregnancy. Her scholarship, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, has been published extensively in prestigious medical and nursing journals and has led to interventions incorporated into health care systems. She has received numerous awards and has lectured widely, both in this country and abroad. Currently, she is Co-Investigator with colleagues Richard Steeves and Kathryn Laughon in a groundbreaking study on the effects of uxoricide (homicide of one spouse by the other, typically the slaying of a wife by her husband). Their objective is to develop online protocols to help caregivers provide appropriate support for children who survive this trauma, a phenomenon more common than childhood leukemia. The School’s PhD program, under her direction, is currently ranked #1 in the country in the National Institute of Health’s National Research Service Award (NRSA) Fellowships.
Topics: Health Nursing Violence Against Women Women’s Health Uxoricide
Sharon Williams Utz, PhD, RN
Expertise: Dr. Utz’ teaching focuses on chronic illness, health behavior and self-care, and also on standardized nursing language for computerized patient records. Her research is primarily on the care of African Americans living in rural areas who have chronic illness, particularly diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Specifically, she is interested in identifying barriers and facilitators to self-care and in designing programs of care for this population.
Topics: Chronic Illness Diabetes Care Cultural Aspects of Health Care Rural African Americans Health Behavior/Self-Care Standardized Nursing Language