Faculty research interests

Marianne Baernholdt, PhD, MPH, RN, is director of International Initiatives at the School and an associate professor of nursing in the Family, Community and Mental Health Systems department. A long-time advocate for rural health clinicians around the world, Baernholdt specializes in assessing quality and safety.

TOPICS: quality and safety in healthcare, rural health, rural nursing, international nursing

TOPICS: grief-related topics

Susan Bauer-Wu, PhD, RN, FAAN -- the Kluge Endowed Professor of Contemplative End-of-Life Care -- focuses on the effects of chronic stress and the use of contemplative approaches to bolster stress resilience and sense of well-being. The author of Leaves Falling Gently, she has garnered some $7 million in federal and major foundation funding during her academic career.

TOPICS: 
end-of-life care, chronic and terminal illness, mindfulness

Amy Boitnott, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, is an assistant professor of nursing and an expert on childhood obesity and parents' influence on the health issue. She is a member of the department of Family, Community and Mental Health Systems.

Valentina L. Brashers, MD is vice president for interdisciplinary care and a distinguished practitioner in the National Academies of Practice. She leads the school's interprofessional education initiative.

TOPICS:
interprofessional education;
healthcare collaboration; erythema in darkly pigmented skin;
pulmonology;
health care reform

Barbara Brodie, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor emerita and associate director of the Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry (at right), is a pioneer in the area of nursing history. She was instrumental in the conception, creation and expansion of the Center, and continues to teach nursing history at the School.

TOPICS: nursing history, Florence Nightingale, nursing artifacts

Linda K. Bullock, PhD, RN, FAAN is the Jeannette Lancaster Alumni Endowed Professor and director of the school's Center for Nursing Research. The recipient of $29 million in grants since her academic career began, a former school nurse, childbirth educator, and labor and delivery nurse, Bullock received a $2 million NIH grant to study the use of tablet computers as a means of detecting domestic violence during routine home visits from visiting nurses. In 2012, she also received a $225,000 state grant to study whether pregnant teens respond best to in-person home visits or telephone support.

TOPICS: 
domestic violence, teen pregnancy; technology in public health;
smoking cessation;

Reba Moyer Childress, MSN, FNP, APRN-BC is a national and international expert in simulation learning, and a passionate advocate for incorporating simulation into nursing curricula. Part of the school's interprofessional education effort with the School of Medicine, she serves on the National League of Nursing (NLN)/Laerdal National Simulation Task Force and is the founder of the Virginia State Nursing Simulation Alliance. She is also a founding board member of the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning.

TOPICS: 
simulation learning; interprofessional education

Gina DeGennaro, DNP, RN, AOCN, CNL, teaches new and veteran nurses about oncology, the administration of chemotherapy, as well as palliative care nursing as part of the Department of Acute & Specialty Care.

TOPICS: 
palliative care nursing;
oncology nursing

Pam DeGuzman, PhD, MBA, RN, an assistant professor of nursing and a Roberts Scholar, studies the effect of built environment on the health of vulnerable populations. She is also a fellow of the U.Va. Center for Design and Health, and teaches healthcare management, administration, and research.

TOPICS:
"food deserts," cities and health, public health, rural health

Emily Drake, PhD, RN, CNL oversees the school's labor and delivery rotation, and teaches courses on maternal-child health for the Department of Family, Community & Mental Health Systems, and is a dynamic, award-winning educator. Her specialities include high-risk pregnancy, infant development, breastfeeding, and technology.

TOPICS: 
high risk pregnancy;
labor and delivery nursing;
breastfeeding; postpartum depression; maternal responsiveness and attachment

Beth Epstein, PhD, RN, an associate professor, teaches courses on ethics and pharmacology in the Department of Acute & Specialty Care.

TOPICS: 
pediatric nursing;
end-of-life issues;
medical ethics; pharmacology

Jeanne Erickson, PhD, RN, AOCN teaches courses in the Department of Acute & Specialty Care related to symptom management in adolescents and young adults with cancer, interprofessional education and practices related to palliative and end-of-life care.

TOPICS:
Oncology, interprofesional education, cancer care, end-of-life care

Dorrie K. Fontaine, RN, PhD, FAAN, dean of the School of Nursing since 2008, is a strong advocate for the creation of innovative nursing curricula, a passionate advocate of interprofessional education and collaborative practice, and a promoter of healthy work environments. A long-time acute care nurse who spent years at one of the nation's busiest ERs in urban Baltimore, Dr. Fontaine regularly addresses issues related to nursing and nurse faculty shortages, promoting and maintaining resilient nurses, and incorporating practices of mindfulness, yoga and meditation to ensure that new and seasoned nurses care for themselves -- and can offer the best in care for their patients.

TOPICS:
Nursing faculty shortage;
interprofessional education;
mindfulness; health care reform;
compassionate care

Elizabeth Friberg, DNP, RN teaches topics related to community health and population-based practice, health systems leadership, management and administration in the Department of Family, Community & Mental Health Systems.

TOPICS:
Caring for the elderly;
caregiver burden

Rebecca Harmon, PhD, RN, PMHCNS-BC has been teaching psychiatric mental health nursing to graduate and undergraduate students since 1993 and has received the Excellence in Teaching, Innovative Teaching, and Faculty Excellence Awards. She lectures on mental health nursing issues to nursing and community groups, has published articles in professional nursing journals, and was recently named a Hemmings Fellow for sevice in education of new nurses.

TOPICS:
Severe mental illness;
psychiatric nursing;

Janie Heath, PhD, APRN-BC, FAAN studies nursing leadership, public health and tobacco control and is the chief academic officer for the nursing school. She is a noted pioneer leader and mentor for two acute care nurse practitioner (ACNP) programs (University of South Carolina and Georgetown) and as an elected board of director (2003-2005) for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, she has created initiatives that impacted over 90,000 AACN members and affiliates world-wide.

TOPICS:
Tobacco control;
nursing curriculum;
nurse faculty shortages;
public health

 Patricia Hollen, PhD, RN, FAAN is the Malvina Yuille Boyd Professor of Oncology Nursing, and received in 2012 a $2 million NIH grant to study decision aids for lung cancer patients and their families. She is part of the Department of Acute & Specialty Care.

TOPICS:
decision-making aid for cancer treatment; patient and family regret

Arlene Keeling, PhD, the Centennial Distinguished Professor and the director of the Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry, is the author of Nurses on the Frontline: When Disaster Strikes (2011). Dr. Keeling's popular courses -- required of every student earning any degree at the the U.Va. School of Nursing -- inform contemporary nursing practice by examining what's been done in times past: successfully, and not so successfully.

TOPICS:
nursing history;
rural nursing;
Florence Nightingale

Pam Kulbok, DNSc, RN, FAAN is the Theresa A. Thomas Professor of Nursing Professor of Public Health Sciences, is chair of the Department of Family, Community & Mental Health Systems, coordinator of the Public Health Nursing Leadership program and an RWJF Executive Nurse Fellow.

TOPICS:
Nursing leadership;
tobbaco use and cessation; rural healthcare

Kathryn Laughon, PhD, RN, FAAN, who focuses her work on issues related to intimate partner violence and its impact on women and children, is a forensic nurse examiner. Dr. Laughon conducts evidence collection and provides care to victims of sexual assault, and teaches in the Department of Family, Community & Mental Health Systems. Dr. Laughon currently is principle investigator on a National Institute of Mental Health-funded study to test an intervention for guardians of children orphaned by intimate partner homicide.

Irma Mahone, PhD, RN, is a research assistant professor of nursing. She is a registered nurse with a master's degree in psychiatric mental health and a PhD in nursing.

TOPICS:
Mental health, rurality

Audrey Snyder, PhD, RN, ACNP-BC, CEN, CCRN, FAANP, FAEN, is currently doing research on the use of makeshift clinics following the January 2010 earthquakes in Haiti and patient satisfaction at the Remote Area Medical Clinics in Southwest Virginia.

TOPICS:
Rural and underserved populations both in the United States and abroad

Ann Taylor, EdD, MS, RN, FAAN, is director of the Center for the Study of Complementary and Alternative Therapies. Taylor, a clinical nurse researcher for four decades and at UVA for more than two, studies mind-body therapies, alternatives to traditional cancer symptom management, pain management for fibromyalgia, and is the Betty Norman Norris Professor of Nursing. She is part of the Department of Acute and Specialty Care.

TOPICS:
pain mangement for cancer; yoga, mindfulness; meditation; therapeutic massage

Ishan Williams, PhD conducts culturally relevant research among vulnerable populations, such as rural and minority populations, around the areas of chronic illness and mental health among older adults and their caregivers. She is currently studying whether primary care clinicians are offering appropriate screenings for African-Americans over age 60 who have risk factors for dementia, including history of stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes and a history of smoking.

TOPICS:
Alzheimer's disease;
dementia, African-Americans' health risks