PhD Faculty

 

Ruth A. Anderson, RN, PhD, FAAN, Professor and a Senior Fellow in the Center for Aging and Human Development. She received her BSN from Stockton State College in New Jersey, her MSN in Gerontological Nursing and MA in Social Gerontology from the University of Pennsylvania, and her PhD in nursing from The University of Texas at Austin. Her scholarship is dedicated to improving management of nursing homes, an area of rapidly growing need. Her contributions have been to combine nursing, management, and complexity science and apply these to theory development and research that have advanced better patient care and staff retention through management practices. Anderson’s early work demonstrated that better staffing leads to better resident outcomes and lower turnover. Later she identified new ways to understand nursing management, demonstrating that interpersonal relationships are key to high quality. For example, she found that communication openness and relationship-oriented leadership lead to better quality; and that interaction between reward climate and communication openness leads to lower turnover. Her work identifies the management practices that clinical leaders and nursing staff can use to improve outcomes, suggesting new targets for practice and policy. She recently completed an NIH-National Institute of Nursing Research from which she developed a new intervention for improving staff interactions and information exchange in long term care settings. She is currently funded the VA to test the intervention for its impact on reducing patient falls.

Donald E. Bailey Jr. (Chip), RN, PhD, Associate Professor, received his BSN from Atlantic Christian College (Barton) in Wilson, NC, his MN in Nursing Administration from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and his PhD in Nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Senior Fellow in the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, and a former John A. Hartford Foundation Fellow. His research program has focused on patients with prostate cancer or chronic hepatitis C who elect watchful waiting as treatment for their disease. Currently he is testing the efficacy of an Uncertainty Management Intervention delivered by a nurse via telephone to patients and caregivers as they wait for a liver transplant. This NINR funded, 5 year randomized controlled trial will enroll 240 patients and caregivers. In addition, he is working with Dr. Meredith Wallace at Yale University to put components of the intervention into a web based format for use by men on the internet and also with Dr. Martin Sanda at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to understand the impact of illness uncertainty on men treated for prostate cancer. This year, Dr. Bailey has been invited to participate in the Duke Faculty Fellows Seminar Program, a year-long faculty-in-residence program, sponsored by the Duke Social Science Research Institute. The topic for the 2008-2009 academic year is Medical Decision Making. Dr. Bailey’s research project is aimed at understanding the treatment decision making processes of men newly diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer. Specifically, he will investigate the cognitive and emotional factors that shape a man’s decision making and how he and his wife/partner gauge health risk and arrive at a shared treatment decision.

 

Julie Barroso, PhD, ANP, APRN, BC, FAAN, Associate Professor and the Director of the Adult Nurse Practitioner Specialty. She is also the Research Development Coordinator for DUSON's Office of Research Affairs, and is a Senior Research Fellow in Duke's Health Inequalities Program. She received her BSN from Florida State University in 1983, her MS in nursing from the University of South Florida in 1988, and her PhD in nursing from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993. She is an ANCC-certified Adult Nurse Practitioner and continues to see patients one day a week in the Duke AIDS Research and Treatment Center. Her research interests are in qualitative methods and HIV-related fatigue. She has published more than 45 articles, most of them research based, and is a reviewer for numerous journals. She has served the HIV-positive community personally and professionally for over 20 years. She is the Chair of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care Research Committee, and a member of the American Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau, and the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care.

 

Shulamit Bernard (Shula) RN, PhD, Director of the Clinical Research Management Master’s program. Dr. Bernard received her BS in nursing from the City University of New York, her MS as a Family Health Nurse Practitioner from the University of Rochester, and her PhD in Health Policy and Administration, with a minor in Epidemiology, from the School of Public Health, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Bernard also completed pre- and post-doctoral fellowships in Health Services Research at the Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC-Chapel Hill. Prior to joining Duke, Dr. Bernard directed a program of research focusing on health care quality and outcomes at the Research Triangle Institute, a not for profit think tank based in the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Dr. Bernard has led and participated in national evaluations of demonstrations that tested a variety of health care delivery models for addressing the needs of chronically ill older adults. She was the Principal Investigator of a research initiative that explored barriers and facilitators to the adoption of innovations in quality and safety among integrated delivery systems. She also led research projects that explored health care quality from a number of perspectives, including the patient and family perspective.

 

Debra Brandon, PhD, RN, CNS, Associate Professor and Director of the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Specialty. Dr. Brandon is also a CNS for the Duke Intensive Care Nursery. She received her doctorate in nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her MSN and BSN were also from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Brandon has extensive clinical experience in neonatology, pediatrics, and child development. Before joining the Duke faculty, Dr. Brandon was a pediatric clinical nurse specialist at the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, NY, and a developmental clinical nurse specialist at the Center for Development and Learning in Chapel Hill, NC. She was also on faculty in the nursing and medical schools of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Brandon is an active member of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses and the International Society for Infant Studies. Her research interests include the effects of the intensive care environment on the growth and development of pre-term infants.

Mary T. Champagne, RN, PhD, FAAN, Professor and former Dean of the School of Nursing. She has her MSN and doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Champagne’s research has focused on the prevention of acute confusion in hospitalized elderly patients. She was also the clinical nursing research specialist on the Disseminating Nursing Research Project, funded initially by the National Center for Nursing Research and then by the Division of Nursing. She has published widely in her research areas; she is a co-editor of five books, each of which received the AJN Book of the Year Award. In 1995 she received a Cameo Award for Outstanding Nurse Researcher, Sigma Theta Tau International. She is active professionally in Sigma Theta Tau, NCNA and AACN.

 

Kirsten N. Corazzini, PhD, Assistant Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. The focus of Dr. Corazzini’s research is nursing management in long-term care, especially delegation and the role of professional nursing in nursing homes. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.

 

Linda Lindsey Davis RN, MSN, PhD, FAAN, Professor and Chair of the PhD Program, was named one of the School’s first Distinguished Professors, the Ann Henshaw Gardiner Distinguished Professorship. She has a Baccalaureate in Nursing from Old Dominion University, a Master’s in Nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing from the University of Maryland, and she has completed post-doctoral studies on family research methods at the University of California at San Francisco. Dr. Davis was one of the first Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Fellows in primary care. As an Adult Nurse Practitioner, she practiced in elder care settings in New York, Oregon, Virginia and Alabama. Dr. Davis has teaching and administrative experience in baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral programs in nursing, and has published more than 60 papers and book chapters on elder care education, advanced practice and research. Currently, she is the principal investigator for an NIH/NINR-funded study on testing strategies for helping family caregivers provide home care for frail elders with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Davis is a member of Sigma Theta Tau and the Gerontological Society of America. She joined the School in 2005.

 

Sharron L. Docherty, RN, PhD, PNP, Assistant Professor and Director of the Pediatric Acute Care Advanced Practice Specialty. Dr. Docherty’s program of research centers on improving the quality of life and long-term outcomes of infants, children, adolescents and their families who are undergoing treatment for life-threatening and chronic illnesses. She currently practices as a PNP in the Valvano Day Hospital at Duke Children's Hospital and conducts research with the Duke Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Program. Dr. Docherty received her BScN at the University of Windsor, her MScN at the University of Western Ontario, Canada and her PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is an adjunct faculty in the School of Nursing and mentor faculty for the Center for Developmental Science at UNC-CH. She is a member of NAPNAP, Society for Research in Child Development, Southern Nursing Research Society, and Sigma Theta Tau.

 

Catherine L. Gilliss, DNSc, RN, FAAN, Dean of the Duke University School of Nursing and Vice Chancellor for Nursing Affairs at Duke University. Dean Gilliss is a graduate of Duke University (BSN, 1971), the Catholic University of America (MSN, 1974), and University of California, San Francisco (DNSc, 1983), where she also completed her post-doctoral studies as a University President’s Fellow. Prior to assuming her appointment at Duke, she served as Professor and Dean at the Yale University School of Nursing (1998-2004), and Professor and Chair of the Department of Family Health Care at the University of California, San Francisco (1983-1998). Her career has been devoted to graduate nursing education, particularly the preparation of nurse scientists and advanced practice nurses for roles in primary care. Dr. Gilliss’ scientific interests include family and chronic illness.

 

Linda K. Goodwin, RN, BC, PhD, Associate Professor, completed her BSN and MSN at the University of Missouri and her doctorate at the University of Kansas with a major in nursing and a minor in computer science/informatics. Her area of expertise is informatics, data mining research, and development of expert systems. Her research, funded by the National Library of Medicine, uses data mining methods to predict preterm birth risk in pregnant women. She holds a joint appointment in Community and Family Medicine. Dr. Goodwin serves as the director for the Informatics specialty.

 

Cristina Hendrix, RN, DNS, GNP-BC, FNP, Assistant Professor, completed her BSN at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines; she received her MSN-FNP at the University of Alabama and her DNS from Louisiana State University, and her Post-Master's certificate in GNP from Duke University. Dr. Hendrix’s background includes experience as a critical care nurse, followed by practicing as a family nurse practitioner. She presently practices as a gerontological nurse practitioner. Dr. Hendrix's program research is on developing interventions to support family caregivers of chronically-ill patients. She is presently funded by the NIH-National Institute of Nursing Research to investigate the effects of an individualized, experiential training about home care for family caregivers given before hospital discharge of their loved ones suffering from cancer. Dr. Hendrix is also a nurse investigator at the Geriatrics Research, Education, and Clinical Center at the Durham VA. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, the Gerontological Society of America, the Southern Nursing Research Society in Nursing, and the Philippine Nurses Association - North Carolina.

Diane Holditch-Davis, RN, PhD, FAAN, Marcus Hobbs Distinguished Professor in the School of Nursing and Associate Dean for Research Affairs. She received her BSN from Duke University and both her MS in parent-child nursing and PhD in developmental psychobiology from the University of Connecticut. Prior to coming to Duke, she taught for more than 20 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she served as the Director of the Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Programs in the School of Nursing. Dr. Holditch-Davis’s research focuses on predicting developmental outcomes in medically at-risk infants, identifying effects of maternal psychological well-being on mother-child interactions and child developmental outcomes, and using the development of sleeping and waking to measure biological risk in preterm infants. As part of her studies, Dr. Holditch-Davis has refined methods to study mother-infant behavioral interactions both in the hospital environment and in the home. Currently, Dr. Holditch-Davis is principal investigator on a study investigating the effects of two mother-administered interventions (skin-to-skin holding and massage) for very low birth weight infants.

Constance M. Johnson, RN, PhD, Assistant Professor, is an informatician with interdisciplinary training in nursing and health informatics and also Director of the Informatics option in the Masters program. She received her BSN from the University of Connecticut and her MS and PhD in Health Informatics from the University of Texas Health Science Center, School of Health Information Sciences. Dr. Johnson has more than 20 years of experience in research and informatics in the areas of health promotion and disease prevention. In addition to developing and directing the development of numerous large databases, as well as user interfaces in the areas of obstetrics/neonatology, cancer prevention, and cancer genetics, Dr. Johnson has extensive experience with large population studies. She has done research in preterm labor prevention, health care informatics, mental models, human-centered interface and web design, colorectal cancer prevention, information visualization, and cancer risk models. While at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Dr. Johnson studied under an F38-Fellowship from the National Library of Medicine. She has given numerous national peer-reviewed conference presentations and has been an author on numerous articles.

 

Robin B. Knobel RN, PhD, NNP, Assistant Professor, received her MSN from East Carolina University as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. She received her PhD in Nursing from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 2006. Dr. Knobel’s research focuses on thermoregulation physiology in the extremely premature infant. Dr. Knobel uses physiological monitoring, infrared thermal imaging, and observation to study mechanisms of heat production and vasomotor control in premature infants. Dr. Knobel is currently practicing as a NNP two days a month in the Duke NICU and teaches in the pediatric graduate nursing program. She is currently principal investigator in a study examining temperature and vasomotor tone in extremely low birth weight infants. She is a member of American Academy of Pediatrics, Sigma Theta Tau, NANN, ANN, Southern Nursing Research Society, and European Society of Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care.

 

Camille E. Lambe, RN, PhD, AOCN, NP, Assistant Clinical Professor, is a nurse practitioner with extensive clinical experience in medical oncology and end of life issues. She received her BSN from Winston-Salem State University, her MSN and PhD in Nursing from the University of North Carolina School of Nursing, and her Post-Master’s Nurse Practitioner Certificate from Duke University. Dr. Lambe practiced as both a clinical specialist and as a nurse practitioner with a private oncology practice at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, NC. In that role she developed both patient and family education and support materials. Her particular areas of interest in oncology include symptom management and cancer survivorship. She has been active in developing educational programs for advanced oncology nurses in chemotherapy administration locally, and has served on test development committees for national oncology certification. At present, Dr. Lambe combines faculty responsibilities with a practice as a nurse practitioner in Palliative Care with Hospice of Wake County. She is an active member of the local and national Oncology Nursing Society and the North Carolina Council of Nurse Practitioners. Her research interests include cancer survivorship and quality of life, pain management, breast cancer, and end-of-life care.

Lawrence R. Landerman, PhD, Associate Research Professor has served as a methodologist and data analyst at the Duke University Medical Center for the past 20 years. He has been the lead data analyst on grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Aging, and statistical consultant on numerous other grants in the areas of aging, physical health, and mental health. His work includes numerous longitudinal studies of the impact of social, and environmental, and risk factors on health and disability using hierarchical (mixed) models, structural equation models, survival models, and latent class trajectory models. Dr. Landerman's major research interests include longitudinal research methods, functional change in the older persons, and access to health care. His current research includes a methodological study of the proper estimation of hierarchical models of change when the dependent variable is non-normal, and a paper on the use of structural equation models and cluster analysis to delineate and assess predictors and the impact or symptom clusters.

Isaac M. Lipkus, Ph.D, Professor and Director of the Risk Communication Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, specializing in the area of social psychology. For the last 14 years, Dr. Lipkus' research has focused on cancer prevention and detection and more recently, decisions pertaining to cancer treatment. This work has applied social cognitive models, with an emphasis on risk communication processes, of which he is a national and international expert, to motivate smoking cessation, increase breast cancer and colorectal cancer screening, exercise and dietary change, and improve breast cancer treatment decisions. His recent work explores how genetic feedback influences smoking cessation and breast cancer treatment decisions, as well as developing more effective risk communication tools.

 

Janet A. Levy, PhD, Assistant Research Professor and Statistical Methodologist, School of Nursing obtained her Ph.D. in Educational Research from the University of Kansas, and has been a practicing statistician/research methodologist for the past 25 years. She has worked in a variety of disciplines including the biological sciences, education, and business. These experiences provided intimate knowledge of what has become known as generalized linear models. Before coming to Duke, she was a mathematical statistician in the Clinical Trials Network of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. While there, she developed an interest in the design and sizing of clinical trials to test longitudinal clinical strategies for chronic illnesses. A second area of professional expertise includes the measurement of addiction severity. At the Duke University School of Nursing, she teaches in both the Ph.D. and the DNP programs; Categorical Data Analysis in the former and Evidence Based Practice and Applied Statistics in the latter.

Eleanor S. McConnell, RN, PhD, Associate Professor, has strong clinical and scholarly experience in the field of gerontology. Dr. McConnell is currently funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research to study disability in nursing home residents with dementia. In addition to continuing her own research in the area of enhancing functional ability in the frail elderly, she assists students and nurses at DUMC with research and research utilization projects including investigating funding sources and assisting nurses with preparation of grant applications and presentations. Her BSN and MSN are from the Duke School of Nursing; her doctorate is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is active in Sigma Theta Tau and is an editor for Gerontologist. She also maintains her expertise in geriatrics through her clinical work at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Dorothy L. Powell, RN, Ed.D, FAAN, Clincial Professor and Director of the Office of Global and Community Health Initiatives in the School of Nursing and Clinical Professor of Nursing. She received her undergraduate degree in Nursing from Hampton University, Hampton, VA, her Master of Science in Maternal and Infant Nursing from the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, and her Ed.D in Higher Education Administration from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA. Dr. Powell completed further studies through the Executive Development Series in the School of Education at Harvard University. Her experiences and expertise include community development and partnering, program and workforce training in developing countries, and environmental justice. She served as Dean and Associate Dean of Nursing Education at Howard University, Washington, DC for the past 18 years before joining the faculty at Duke. Dr. Powell is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

 

Marva Mizell Price, RN, DrPH, FNP, CS, FAAN, Assistant Professor, received her Masters of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health (MCH), and Doctor of Public Health in MCH and Public Health Leadership from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health in Chapel Hill. Dr. Price graduated from the family nurse practitioner program at the University of North Carolina School of Nursing in 1974 and completed the Post-Master’s program in Developmental Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Nursing, Child Development and Mental Retardation Center. Her clinical practice areas have included rural health, developmental pediatrics, and reproductive health. Dr. Price has received funding for reproductive health and cancer prevention/detection research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Avon Corporation, and the Department of Defense. Dr. Price serves on the N.C. Commission for Health Services (State Board of Health) and on a commercial Institutional Review Board. She is active in the American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, Albert Schweitzer Foundation, N.C. Board of Advisers, Oncology Nursing Society, and Cervical Cancer Advisory Board for the American Social Health Association, and Susan G. Komen Foundation.

 

Michael Relf, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, AACRN, FAAN, Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education in the School of Nursing at Duke University. Dr. Relf has a Doctor of Philosophy degree in nursing from Johns Hopkins University where his work focused on HIV prevention and intimate partner violence. Dr. Relf has written extensively on the relationship between childhood sexual abuse, intimate partner violence and HIV risk behaviors among men who have sex with men. His recently funded research has tested interventions to promote retention in primary care among HIV+ persons at high-risk of dropping out of care after enrolling examining health literacy, HIV related stigma and patient-provider relationships. Currently, Dr. Relf is the co-investigator on a PEPFAR funded project to build nursing capacity in the context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Dr. Relf is certified as an Advanced HIV/AIDS Certified Registered Nurse and clinical specialist in adult health. He was recognized by the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care with the Frank Lamendola Achievement Award for Nursing Leadership in HIV Care in 2003 and the Spirit of Nursing Award for mentoring in 2006, is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International and Sigma Xi, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing

 

Susan M. Schneider, RN, PhD, CS, AOCN, FAAN, Associate Professor, serves as Director of the Oncology Nursing Specialty. She received her doctorate in nursing from Case Western Reserve University, her Master of Science degree from Texas Woman’s University, and her BSN from the University of Akron. Dr. Schneider has extensive experience in pediatric and adult oncology nursing. She holds certification as a clinical nurse specialist and as an advanced oncology certified nurse. Prior to joining the faculty at Duke University, Dr. Schneider taught in the oncology program at Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University, and was a clinical nurse specialist at University Hospitals of Cleveland. She is active professionally in Sigma Theta Tau, the Association of Pediatric Oncology Nurses, and is on the national board of directors for the Oncology Nursing Society. She has received both the Excellence in Cancer Nursing Research and Excellence in Cancer Nursing Education Awards from the Oncology Nursing Society. Her research interests include the management of symptom distress in cancer patients and the use of distraction interventions to enhance coping. She has received research funding from the Oncology Nursing Society, the American Cancer Society, Case Western Reserve University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the NINR.

 

Nancy M. Short, RN, DrPH, MBA, Associate Clinical Professor and Senior Research Fellow with the Terry Sanford Public Policy Institute's Health Inequalities Program. She served as the Chair of the ABSN program in 2007 and has been instrumental in achieving CCNE accreditation for both the MSN and ABSN programs. She received her undergraduate nursing education at Duke, her graduate education from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and her doctorate from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. Her doctoral studies focused on health policy and administration with a minor in leadership, while her research identified gaps in data collected about nurse practitioner practice. She was selected as the 19th nurse to be a RWJF Health Policy Fellow (2004-2007) and was assigned to the office of the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Senator Bill Frist in 2005. Prior to joining the faculty at Duke, Dr. Short’s experiences encompassed 25 years of bedside clinical and management roles.

 

Susan G. Silva, PhD, Research Associate Professor and Statistician in the Office of Research Affairs. Dr. Silva received a PhD in Experimental/Biological Psychology from North Carolina State University and completed a NIH-funded post-doctoral fellowship in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the Brain and Development Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). She has extensive formal training in both Biostatistics and Behavioral Statistics, and has taught statistics courses designed for psychology students and neuropsychiatry research fellows. Before coming to Duke in 1999, Dr. Silva was a member of the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at the UNC-CH School of Medicine - where she served as the Director of the Neurobehavioral Assessment Core and the Associate Director of the Data Management and Biostatistics Core for their NIMH-sponsored Mental Health and Neurosciences Clinical Research Center. Dr. Silva is a senior statistician on the NIMH Data Safety and Monitoring Board (DSMB) as well as a statistical reviewer for several industry-sponsored DSMBs. She currently serves as the Statistical PI for the Substance Use Outcomes Following Treatment for Adolescent Depression (SOFTAD) study and is a member of the NIMH Interventions Committee for Disorders Involving Children and their Families (ITVC). Her statistical expertise includes the: (1) design of longitudinal studies; (2) application of hierarchical or mixed models; (3) analysis of moderator and mediator variables; (4) use of Generalized Estimating Equations; (5) assessment of reliability and validity; and (5) development and implementation of randomization schemes.

 

Dori Taylor Sullivan, PhD, RN, NE-BC, CNL, CPHQ, Clinical Professor, serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. She has held leadership positions in nursing education and healthcare for the past 30 years including roles as a national healthcare consultant, clinical and research director, clinical specialist, faculty, and academic administrator – including assistant vice chancellor for quality and performance improvement in an academic medical center. Dr. Sullivan has participated in several national initiatives related to nursing education, patient care quality and safety, and leadership development, most of which involved instrument development and program evaluation. She is currently serving as core faculty for evidence-based practice on a Robert Wood Johnson grant, Quality and Safety Education in Nursing (QSEN) and she co-authored a monograph on leadership competencies in healthcare with a focus on complexity science and transformational leadership. Dr. Sullivan received Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in nursing and a Doctor of Philosophy in educational psychology, focusing on evaluation research and measurement, all from the University of Connecticut. She has an advanced healthcare leadership certificate from Yale University and numerous professional certifications in the areas of nursing administration, healthcare quality, and most recently as a Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL).

 

Deirdre K. Thornlow, PhD, RN, CPHQ , Assistant Professor, is an advanced practice nurse with more than 20 years experience in health care. Dr. Thornlow received her BSN from Pennsylvania State University, her MN from the University of California-Los Angeles, and her PhD in Nursing from the University of Virginia. Dr. Thornlow has held numerous leadership positions throughout her career, including that as Director of Quality Operations at the George Washington University Hospital and Gerontology Program, Director for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). Dr. Thornlow is pursuing a program of health services research that capitalizes upon her expertise in acute care quality and patient safety. Her dissertation research, Relationship of Hospital Systems and Utilization of Patient Safety Practices to Patient Outcomes, was funded by a National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Nursing Research and was selected as the 2007 most meritorious dissertation by the University of Virginia School of Nursing faculty. Dr. Thornlow has expanded her quality and patient safety research to include a focus on hospitalized older adults. Dr. Thornlow is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), and a member of Academy Health, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, and the Gerontological Society of America.

 

Barbara S. Turner, RN, DNSc, FAAN, Professor and Chair of the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, received graduate degrees in hospital administration and perinatal nursing prior to receiving her doctorate from the University of California, San Francisco. Following her retirement from the Army Nurse Corps, she assumed the position of Associate Dean and Director of the Center for Nursing Research at Duke. Dr. Turner’s research interests focus on the effect of nursing intervention on critically ill newborns, including exogenous surfactant administration, endotracheal suctioning, high frequency ventilators and airway management. She has published widely in journals, books, monographs and computer-assisted instruction and serves as a Section Editor in Heart & Lung and Journal of Child and Family Research in addition to being a reviewer for other nursing journals. She is active professionally in AACN, American Academy of Nursing, ANA, NCNA, NANN, and Sigma Theta Tau.

Queen E. Utley-Smith, RN, EdD, Associate Clinical Professor and Chair of the Masters program, received her BSN from North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in Durham, her MS in Community Family/Primary Care from the University of Connecticut, and her EdD. in Health Occupations Education from North Carolina State University. Prior to joining the Duke faculty, she established and coordinated a distance education option for RN-BSN students at NCCU. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the Capital Area Guillian-Barre Syndrome Association, the American Public Health Association, and the Gerontological Society of America.

 

Charles Vacchiano, PhD, CRNA, Clinical Professor, received his BSN from Wright State University in 1979, his BS in Anesthesia from George Washington University in 1984 and his PhD in Physiology from the Medical University of South Carolina in 1995. He spent 26 years in the U.S. Navy as a practicing nurse anesthetist, educator and researcher during which time he provided anesthesia care at stateside and overseas hospitals and aboard naval combat vessels, taught and performed clinical research in the Navy Nurse Corps Anesthesia Program, and was the Director of Biomedical Sciences Division at the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory. He holds two US patents. Following his retirement from the US Navy, he was the Director of the Gooding Institute, Bay Medical Center Nurse Anesthesia Program. He has published in multiple journals including the American Journal of Physiology, Cardiovascular Research, Shock, and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetist Journal and has been funded by several government and private agencies. He is the author of a chapter on regional anesthesia in the only anesthesia textbook written by nurse anesthetist and a reviewer for several agencies and journals. He was the American Association of Nurse Anesthetist Researcher of the Year in 2007. He joined the faculty at the School of Nursing in 2008. His research interests include extremes of oxygen exposure in cell, animal and human models and clinical studies in anesthesia and critical care.

Theresa M. Valiga, (Terry), EdD, RN, FAAN, Clinical Professor and Director of the Institute for Educational Excellence, received both a master’s and a doctoral degree in Nursing Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York. She held faculty and administrative positions in five different universities over a 26-year period and then, in 1999, assumed the position of Chief Program Officer at the National League for Nursing, an organizational leadership position she held for the 9 years prior to coming to Duke. In that role, Dr. Valiga developed a number of new initiatives, including the Centers of Excellence program, the Academy of Nursing Education, the Excellence in Nursing Education Model, and several publications, all focusing on education. Dr. Valiga has presented on education topics at national and international conferences, published widely on issues related to nursing education, and consulted with nursing faculty groups in the US, Canada, Japan, and China on curriculum development, program evaluation, innovations in teaching, and the faculty role. She also has received several prestigious awards recognizing her sustained contributions to nursing education, including Fellowship in the American Academy of Nursing and the Sigma Theta Tau International Elizabeth Russell Belford Founders Award for Excellence in Nursing Education. Dr. Valiga also is an expert in the area of leadership and has co-authored a book (now in its third edition) on this complex phenomenon.

 

Kathryn Wood, (Kathy), RN, PhD, Assistant Professor, received her degrees from Brenau College in Gainesville, GA (BSN, 1981); University of Alabama at Birmingham (MSN in Cardiovascular Nursing, 1984); the University of California, San Francisco (PhD in Physiological Nursing, 1996); and post-doctoral fellowship in symptom management (2008). Dr. Wood’s research interests include both qualitative and quantitative methods focusing on the diagnostic process and symptom experiences of patients with arrhythmias. Her clinical experience has included operating room, emergency, critical care, catheterization lab, and cardiovascular ICU settings. Dr. Wood is active professionally in the American Nurses Association, the Heart Rhythm Society, Sigma Theta Tau, the Southern Nursing Research Society, and the American Heart Association, where she is a member of the Cardiovascular Nursing Council. She serves as a reviewer for multiple cardiac and critical care journals.

 

Allison Amend Vorderstrasse, DNSc, MSN, APRN, BSN, Assistant Professor and an adult nurse practitioner whose clinical practice and scholarship focuses on chronic illness, particularly in ethnic minority populations. Her doctoral dissertation research, conducted at the Yale University School of Nursing, recent publications, and national presentations illuminate the relationship of psychosocial factors and dietary intake in Black American women with Type 2 diabetes. Dr. Vorderstrasse has also examined the validity of common dietary assessments for use in clinical practice and research. Her findings have contributed to the literature and to the debate on how best to assess dietary intake in persons with chronic illness, particularly given the extent of obesity in the U.S. and the need for dietary modification interventions at the clinical level.