Xi Hopes UR School of Nursing’s chapter of Sigma Theta Tau embarks on new efforts to engage membership By Patrick Broadwater
The rationale was pretty simple. Jamie Oliva, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, decided to join the board of the Epsilon Xi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau because her career wouldn’t have reached the heights it has without the help of the international honor society. An assistant professor of clinical nursing at the School of Nursing and nurse scientist at Wilmot Cancer Institute, Oliva received critical scholarship support from Sigma to help fund her PhD dissertation. A nurse practitioner in the blood and marrow donor program at Wilmot, she examined transplant populations in an elaborate – and costly – research project that included laboratory supplies, equipment, and training to perform the lab procedures. Shortly after receiving her PhD in 2016, Oliva met with Wilmot’s new CNO, KC Clevenger, PhD, CPNP, CCRP, to discuss nursing research and was offered a brand new position, which allowed her to continue her own line of research on graft-versus-host disease, but also to mentor and guide Wilmot’s nurses so they, too, can be successful in research. “My dissertation project was very expensive, and I would not have been able to do it without financial support,”
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said Oliva, who was inducted into Sigma in 1998 as a student in the UR adult nurse practitioner program. “The reason I wanted to get involved in board service is because I really Jamie Oliva felt like I wanted to give back to an organization that had done so much for me on a professional and a research level. Their involvement and support helped bring me to where I am today in terms of my professional career.” Inspired by the professional boost she received, Oliva joined the board and spent four years as chair of the chapter’s governance committee. Now as the board’s newly elected president, she is leading efforts to rally the chapter’s membership to take the organization to greater heights and expand the opportunities that benefited her so much. “I’d really love to engage our members in Sigma activities and expand our awards and scholarships program,”
