2022 - 2023 Cohort
Rose Feinberg
Rose Feinberg graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010 with a BA in Health and Societies. She went on to complete a master’s degree in public health in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, after which she worked as a public health analyst at RTI International, focusing on access to health coverage and care for low-income and uninsured individuals. In 2020, she completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Duke University while participating in the University Scholars Program, which seeks to facilitate multidisciplinary and intergenerational collaboration across the university. Following graduation, she worked as a public health nurse at a county health department in Colorado, a role that deepened her passion for addressing root causes of maternal and child health disparities. In 2021, she returned to research at RTI and headed back to school once again. During her doctoral training at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, Rose hopes to pursue research related to maternal health disparities and social determinants of health. She is interested in a multidisciplinary research approach that draws on expertise from a variety of fields – including the policy sphere – and centers the perspectives of individuals and communities most affected by health inequities.
2021 - 2022 Cohort
Vera Borkowski
Research Interests: Nursing Informatics, Social determinants of health and pediatric populations, School-based services
Vera Borkowski graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor’s in Science, Nursing with Highest Distinction in 2004. She worked in a variety of settings as a Registered Nurse for 11 years, including Neonatal Intensive Care, Pediatric Intensive Care, Post-anesthesia Care Unit, and Pediatric Transport. In 2015, Vera graduated from Georgetown University with a Master’s in Science, Family Nurse Practitioner degree. Since 2015, she has practiced in School Based Health Centers (SBHCs) at Child and Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut. She is also Adjunct Online Faculty for undergraduate nursing students and works per diem with a national telehealth service. Vera has received the Health Resources and Service Administration NURSE Corps Loan Repayment Award and the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment Award for her work with underserved populations with limited access to healthcare.
Vera has worked on numerous projects for the SBHC program including the “National Quality Initiative Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (CoIIN)” and “Enhancing the Female Adolescent Well-care Visit” with the School Based Health Alliance. She was also part of the National Project on Implementing the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), in schools, attending the 2018, 2019, and 2020 SBIRT Convenings with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Her most recent project involved implementation of an alerts system for use in her SBHC program, with publication in the Journal for Nursing Informatics in 2021. In her doctoral program at Vanderbilt, Vera hopes to explore informatics utilization for healthcare providers serving vulnerable populations, addressing social determinants of health.
Faculty Advisors: Drs. Mariann Piano and Alvin Jeffery
2020 - 2021 Cohort
Francesca Blanchard
Research Interests: Provider-patient communication in pediatric palliative care
Francesca Blanchard graduated from the University of Miami in 2009 with a BSN. While completing her undergraduate nursing program, she received the Baptist Health South Florida Service Excellence Award and was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. In 2013, she completed an MSN specializing in Pediatric Primary Care at Florida International University (FIU). In the course of her studies at FIU, she had the opportunity to do a research practicum in the area of child bereavement. For several years, she has enjoyed volunteering with the Dr. Moises Simpser’s Ventilation Assisted Children’s Center Camp for children with chronic conditions. More recently, she has provided care to children in several villages in Ghana and supported the training of local nurses. As she joins Vanderbilt University’s PhD in Nursing Science program, it is her intent to study communication between nurses and children with life-limiting conditions and their families as a way to improve palliative care training for nurses.
Faculty Advisors: Drs. Deonni Stolldorf and Terrah Foster Akard
Amy Campbell
Research Interests: Autism and abnormal feeding behaviors in pediatric patients
Amy Campbell earned her BSN from Purdue University (2001), graduating with honors. Early in her career as a staff RN at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, Indiana, she became passionate about pediatrics and caring for children with special needs. These interests led her to obtain her MSN from Indiana University (2007) with a specialization as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. For several years, Amy has worked as a PNP in a private pediatric primary care setting in Denver, Colorado, providing care to children of all ages and including children with special needs. Amy gained valuable research experience in her MSN program, participating in pediatric diabetes research, as well as being involved in several studies when she worked as a PNP at the University of Colorado Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center. Both her research experience and extensive experience in pediatrics inspired her to pursue her PhD in Nursing Science. Amy’s research interests focus on autism and abnormal feeding behaviors as an early indicator of autism. Her research goals are to help identify additional signs of autism in infants and young children to start interventions earlier and help with their overall long-term prognosis.
Faculty Advisors: Drs. Sharon Karp and Mulubrhan Mogos
Stacey Carter
Research Interests: Disparities for Hispanic women in breast and cervical cancer screening
Stacey Carter earned her BA in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010, followed by her BS in Nursing from the University of Texas at Houston (UTH) in 2013. During her time at UTH, she was accepted into the honors program, inducted into Sigma Theta Tau, and won multiple research awards. Her many awards included receiving the Undergraduate Research Award as a senior at UTH’s Research Symposium. This research was conducted at The Methodist Hospital in Houston and focused on assessing and implementing patient centered communication. Its aim was to improve communication between providers and patients to help bridge the gap between medical necessity and patient understanding. After graduation, she took a job at St. Luke’s Emergency Department in the greater Houston area. This unearthed her passion for working with underserved, minority populations. Soon after, Stacey enrolled in Georgetown University’s Master of Nursing Program, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2016. Stacey then began working as a nurse practitioner in Chicago at ACCESS Community Network, a Federally Qualified Health Center. She worked primarily with Chicago’s underserved Hispanic population and began witnessing firsthand, the discrepancies in breast and cervical cancer screenings between the United States’ population (as a whole) versus Hispanic women. This realization drove Stacey to discover new ways to increase access to breast and cervical cancer screenings among Hispanic women. To further her knowledge about this subject, she is bringing her talents to Vanderbilt University’s Nursing Science program. She looks forward to continuing the work that she did in Chicago and addressing disparities in Tennessee’s health system and implementing programs to help Hispanic women increase their access, quality, and affordability to breast and cervical cancer screening programs.
Faculty Advisors: Drs. Kate Clouse and Mary Jo Gilmer
Emma V. Clark
Research Interests: Maternal health and human resources for health
Emma V. Clark graduated from Smith College cum laude with a BA in Economics in 2006. Following a Fulbright Fellowship to Botswana, where she studied adherence to AIDS medications, she completed a master’s degree in global disease epidemiology and control at Johns Hopkins University in 2008 and worked on humanitarian health programs in Jordan and Iraq. In 2010, she received her BSN from New York University and returned to international work, first in South Sudan, then with Somali refugees in Kenya, and finally managing humanitarian health programs in Somalia itself. During her time in Africa, she also pursued an MSN from Frontier Nursing University. After receiving her degree in 2013, she became a full-time Certified Nurse Midwife at a federally-funded health care center in Washington, DC. Though she continues to serve there on a per diem basis, she returned to global work four years ago and is currently a Senior Maternal Health Advisor at the United States Agency for International Development. She was a 2016-2017 Duke University-Johnson & Johnson Nurse Leadership Fellow. She is Chair of the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition’s Maternal Health Supplies Caucus and Chair of the American College of Nurse-Midwives Division of Global Engagement Networking Committee. She also teaches in the nurse-midwifery program at Georgetown University. Emma’s research in maternal health and human resources for health will specifically build the evidence base for investments in midwives in low-income countries, particularly fragile settings, to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jeremy Neal
Rachel Hilton
Research Interests: Implementation research relating to utilizing technology to increase healthcare access
Rachel Hilton graduated with her BS with honors in Movement Science from Texas Christian University in 2011. She then developed wellness grant-sponsored programs for oncology patients before returning to study at Vanderbilt University, obtaining her MSN as a Hillard and Nancy Travis scholarship recipient. She is a board certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. During her master’s education, Rachel had the incredible opportunity to work with Vanderbilt University’s Dr. Leanne Boehm, as a research assistant examining the role of telehealth in ICU recovery care. During this work, Rachel’s passion for implementation science and technology innovation bloomed. She has recently presented posters on topics such as utilizing behavior change and social marketing principles in global health quality improvement and has submitted work regarding post-traumatic growth for publication. She is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. During her doctoral training at Vanderbilt, Rachel hopes to pursue implementation research relating to utilizing technology to increase healthcare access.
Faculty Advisors: Drs. Lori Schirle and Bethany Rhoten
2019 - 2020 Cohort
Heather Bradford
Research interests: Provider weight bias and birth outcomes in women with obesity
Heather Bradford graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia summa cum laude with her BSN in 1999 and MSN in midwifery in 2001. She also holds a BA from Boston College. Heather has practiced as a full-scope midwife since 2002. She is full-time faculty and the Assistant Program Director for the Nurse-Midwifery/Women's Health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP) and WHNP Programs at Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies. Her passion is to help grow the midwifery and women’s health NP workforce, with a special focus on retention of students of underrepresented groups. She is an active member of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, where she serves as Vice Chair of the Fellows of ACNM. Throughout her career, her goal has always been to improve maternal and child health outcomes and care, with a focus on marginalized populations. She has served on the WA State Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Panel as well as the WA State Hospital Association Safe Delivery Roadmap Steering Committee. Her research area of interest is understanding why women with obesity are more likely to birth via cesarean section, with a focus on provider weight bias in the intrapartum setting from a health services perspective.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jeremy L. Neal
Emilie Cecil Pozoulakis
Research Interests: Symptom management, clinical and functional outcomes, and quality of life in adults with head and neck cancer
Emilie Cecil graduated with honors in 2015 with her MSN from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She went back to obtain her post-master’s certificate as an Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner In 2018, graduating with honors from George Washington University. Though she started her nursing career in the medical ICU, she found her true passion working and caring for the irradiated head and neck cancer patient as an RN. She now practices as a full-scope nurse practitioner in radiation oncology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital where she has had the opportunity to foster her love for scientific inquiry and clinical research. Emilie is an active member of Sigma Theta Tau International and the Oncology Nursing Society. She recently authored a head and neck cancer book chapter. She is passionate about improving functional and clinical outcomes alike and minimizing the late effects of treatment for these patients. Through her doctoral program at Vanderbilt University, she hopes to pursue research that seeks to mitigate these late effects, such as fibrosis and lymphedema, while intertwining her enthusiasm for the phenomenon of exercise as medicine.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Bethany Rhoten
Maggie Root
Research interests: Pediatric palliative care nurse retention and burnout
Maggie Root earned her BSN from Marymount University in 2010. During her work as a pediatric oncology nurse after graduation, she became interested in the role of pediatric palliative care teams. She received her MSN in 2015 from the University of Pennsylvania with a minor in palliative care. She also holds a BA in Rhetoric and Media studies from Willamette University. Maggie is a board-certified Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and Certified Pediatric Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse. She is an active member of the Pediatric Palliative Care Research Network and Hospice and Palliative Nurses’ Association, where she serves as co-chair of the Pediatric Special Interest Group. Maggie has presented at national conferences on the state of pediatric palliative care research and role of the Advanced Practice Nurse in palliative care. Her research area of interest is how pediatric palliative care teams affect children’s hospitals, using a health services approach. Her specific area of inquiry examines the role that pediatric palliative care teams play in supporting bedside nursing staff, and the association with nurse retention and burnout.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Terrah Foster Akard
Jenine Yager Stone
Research interests: Treatment adherence and self-management behaviors among individuals with diabetes, with a focus on habit formation
Jenine Yager Stone is a graduate of Yale University School of Nursing where she earned an MSN in 2015. She earned a BA in Psychology in 2006 from San Diego State University. She is a member of Psi Chi and Sigma Theta Tau international honor societies in psychology and nursing, respectively. She is board certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner and specializes in research and clinical care for individuals with diabetes. She serves as a clinical trial investigator and the Assistant Director of Research at AMCR Institute, a clinical research center in Escondido, CA focused primarily on diabetes research. In this role, she contributes to protocol development for diabetes device, human factors, and behavioral research trials. Jenine has several publications and abstracts published in reputable peer-reviewed journals such as Diabetes and Expert Review in Endocrinology and Metabolism. Her goal is to conduct research related to treatment adherence and self-management behaviors among individuals with diabetes.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Shelagh Mulvaney
Bethany Young
Research interests: ICU delirium, post-intensive care syndrome, and neurocritical care
Bethany Young graduated with her BSN from Cedarville University in 2009. During this time, she was awarded the Cedarville Scholars Award for academic achievement, leadership, and service. She subsequently earned an MSN from The Ohio State University in 2014. Bethany is board certified as an Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist. She is a clinical expert in Neurocritical Care and an active member of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses, Neurocritical Care Society, and American Association of Critical Care Nurses. In 2017, she received the American Association Critical-Care Nurses, Circle of Excellence Award for achieving excellent outcomes in the care of acutely and critically ill patients and their families. Bethany has presented at national and international conferences on early mobilization in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage and various other quality improvement initiatives in the Neurointensive care unit. Her work has been published in the Neurocritical Care Journal, Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, and Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America. Bethany’s research interests focus on ICU delirium and long-term clinical outcomes in patients with primary brain injury. Her specific area of inquiry seeks to describe delirium and its relationship to long-term functional, cognitive, and psychiatric outcomes in patients with primary brain injury.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Bethany Rhoten