CSON News, fall 2021

news

Research

covid-19’s effect on arab americans

Assistant Professor Nadia Abuelezam, an epidemiologist who studies health disparities for vulnerable populations, spoke to CNN.com and CBS Chicago about her 2020 study on COVID-19’s tragic—and often overlooked—impact on Arab American communities.

Two CSON faculty members are on teams that received Exploratory Collaborative Scholarship Grants from BC’s Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society: ▪ Assistant Professor Andrew Dwyer’s team will develop interventions to enable more effective health screenings for at-risk

Latinx and Black populations. ▪ Assistant Professor Monica O’Reilly

Jacob’s team will explore telehealth’s impact on patient-clinician trust and the overuse of health care services.

As part of Boston College’s McNair PostBaccalaureate Achievement Program, which prepares underrepresented and firstgeneration students for graduate school, Karen Aldana ’23 presented her research on racial disparities in prenatal care. Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Clinical Professor Colleen Simonelli was Aldana’s McNair mentor.

Karen Aldana

EVENTS

At the November Pinnacle lecture, Dean Katherine Gregory presented “Babies, Biomes, and Boston: A Journey in Leadership,” where she discussed her background as a clinician, scientist, and leader; her research on preterm infants’ gut health; and her vision for nursing’s future. View video at bc.edu/pinnacle.

At a virtual event on June 1, Terry Fulmer, M.S. ’77, Ph.D. ’83, an international leader in the field of geriatrics, received the 2021 Dean Rita P. Kelleher Award and discussed “Age-Friendly Health Systems: The Role of Nursing Leadership.”

Faculty

At the 2021 NANDA International Conference, held in collaboration with the Connell School in June: ▪ Professor Susan Gennaro received a Founder’s Award in recognition of her lasting contribution to the field.

▪ Associate Dean for Finance and Administration Christopher Grillo received a Unique

Contribution Award.

▪ Dorothy Jones, who directs CSON’s Marjory Gordon Program, received the Editor’s

Award for her contribution to NANDA-I’s International Journal of Nursing Knowledge.

CSON Department Chair and Associate Professor Allyssa Harris ’94, M.S. ’99, Ph.D. ’08, was named dean of Prairie View A&M University’s College of Nursing after nearly 15 years at the Connell School.

honored for mentorship

Associate Dean for Research Christopher Lee received the American Heart Association’s 2021 Kathleen A. Dracup Distinguished Lecture and Exemplary Career in Mentoring Award after being nominated by several nurse scientists he has mentored. He accepted the award, which was sponsored by the AHA’s Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing, at the association’s annual Scientific Sessions in November, where he also delivered the lecture “Coach, Colleague, Counsel, Friend: A New Era of Scientific Mentoring.”

Assistant Professor Monica O’Reilly-Jacob received the New Investigator Award at Academy Health’s Interdisciplinary Research Group on Nursing Issues Conference, where she presented the paper she co-authored in Medical Care, “The Effect of Supervision Waivers on Practice: A Survey of Massachusetts Nurse Practitioners During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

Professor Susan Gennaro spoke to the Washington Post about how COVID-19 has revealed areas where care is currently insufficient, including mental health.

Christopher Lee

Students and Alumni

academy Jonas policy scholars

Rachel French ’17 and Ph.D. student Katie Fitzgerald Jones were named 2021–22 American Academy of Nursing Jonas Policy Scholars. Each will spend two years focusing on mentorship, engagement, and nursing policy. French is a postdoctoral research fellow through the National Clinician Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

In addition, French and Jones each received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health. French was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship (F32) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for her project “Improving Opioid Use Disorder Treatment for Hospitalized Patients with Endocarditis.” Jones received a predoctoral award (F31) from the National Institute for Nursing Research for her project “A Multimethod Approach to Understanding the Biopsychosocial Underpinnings of Chronic Cancer Pain.”

At the June 2021 NANDA International Conference, Frances Foster ’88, M.S. ’94, was inducted as a NANDA-I Academy Fellow and a team that included Heather Herdman, M.S. ’91, Ph.D. ’98, was presented with the Rosemary Carroll Award for best paper.

Jamarii Johnson ’22 and Jacqueline Rojas ’23 were recognized with scholarships through the U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program, which enables students of limited means to study or intern abroad.

Michelle Li ’23 received a Freeman Award for Study in Asia from the Institute of International Education.

Kristina Italiano ’21 and Christiana Roszik, M.S. ’21, ran the 125th Boston Marathon this October. Italiano supported Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in memory of her father, Richard Italiano, Jr. A survivor of acute lymphocytic leukemia, Roszik ran as part of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Marathon team to support its Healthcare Heroes Fund.

Rachel French Katie Fitzgerald Jones

Jamarii Johnson

Photographs courtesy of: Karen Aldana, Rachel French, and Jamarii Johnson Photographs of Christopher Lee and Katie Fitzgerald Jones by Lee Pellegrini

Community

This fall, CSON launched Grand Rounds— lectures by renowned speakers on a variety of topics, such as medicine, research, clinical care, and the current state of nursing. Speakers thus far have been Northeastern University Associate Professor Lichuan Ye and Marilyn Hammer, who directs Dana- Farber Cancer Institute’s Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care Services.

Although students and faculty were unable to travel to Léogâne, Haiti, for the Connell School’s annual community health clinics this year, CSON maintained its support with a Haitian team of translators, a community health worker, and medical staff coordinated by Clinical Assistant Professor Donna Cullinan. They established mobile clinics in Léogâne to provide care and distribute needed medications to underserved communities.

CSON’s Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) program has three new medical manikins thanks to donations made in memory of Clinical Assistant Professor Denise Testa, a nurse anesthetist and CRNA program cofounder who died in 2020. The manikins—humanshaped models used to teach students basic and advanced airway management— were unveiled in September.

IN MEMORY

Jane Hanron, who was a School of Nursing faculty member from 1961–88 and served as director of continuing education, died on May 15 at the age of 98.

Mary Kate O’Malley ’14, M.S. ’18, a labor and delivery nurse practitioner at Cambridge Health Alliance who was also a part of Massachusetts’s Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program, died on August 18 at the age of 29.