School of Nursing > Research & Centers > Faculty Research

Gerald Bennett, PhD, FAAN

 Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Health Environments and Systems
 Schools of Nursing and Graduate Studies

Dr. Bennett's research is in the area of behavioral oncology with a focus on the development and testing of counseling interventions for men with prostate cancer and their partners. He is currently principal investigator for two studies: "Telephone Counseling for Rural Cancer Populations" and "Psychosocial, Health Care, and Research Participation Concerns of African American Men with Prostate Cancer". He was one of two Oncology Nursing Society Foundation/Aventis Research Fellows for 2003.

 (back to top)

Sharon Bennett, DNP, APRN, BC

 Assistant Professor, Department of Biobehavioral Nursing

 School of Nursing

Dr. Sharon Bennett is conducting evaluation research on the Nursing Faculty Practice Group Tobacco Cessation Program.  The group treatment program includes evidence-based practice standards published by the Department of Health and Human Services (Fiore & colleagues, 2000).  Outcomes evaluation includes pre-post measures of abstinence verified by carbon monoxide monitor, cigarettes per day, readiness to quit, and symptoms of depression.

 (back to top)

Andrea Boyd, RN, MA/MSN, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Physiological and Tecnological Nursing

School of Nursing

Currently Dr Boyd's research focuses on the refinement of a comprehensive, consensus physiological model she designed to understand the physiologic underpinnings of Heart Failure and how exercise can be implemented within the medical management model of heart failure. This research involves basic research in vascular biology,nephrology, and cardiology as well as translational research. Future research will involve implementing exercise within a medical management framework into the home of Heart Failure patients using telehealth technology. A secondary interest of Dr Boyd is research methodology, design, and data analysis in biomedical research.

 (back to top)

Sheila Bunting, PhD, RN

Professor, Department of Health Environment and Systems

 School of Nursing

Dr. Bunting's research interests include: Health Management by Persons with HIV and their Families, Adherence by Persons with HIV to Medical and Health Recommendations, Women's Health, Health Care Ethics, and Feminist and Qualitative Research Methods. Her current research is a study funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research measuring effects of a nursing telephone intervention on patients' adherence to HIV medications.

Dr. Bunting's past published research has included studies of self-care decisions of women with HIV, family care giving of persons with HIV, and nurses ethical decision-making in practice situations. She is a consultant for researchers using grounded theory and other qualitative methodologies.

 (back to top)

Cynthia Chernecky, PhD, RN, AOCN, FAAN

Professor, Department of Physiological and Technological Nursing
Schools of Nursing and Graduate Studies

Dr. Chernecky's areas of research focus on physiological and psychological factors associated with lung cancer, outcomes and education associated with venous access devices in cancer patients and caregivers and best educational formats for student learning through book publication. In lung cancer her research focuses on respiratory factors as part of the symptom experience with specific emphasis on coughing, wheezing, dyspnea and allergies/hypersensitivities. Currently, she is a part of a national multi-site nursing research team, supported by internal and external funding, that is investigating the experience of patients who have non-small cell lung cancer. The long range goal of her collaboration is to develop effective strategies to promote quality of life and effectively control respiratory symptoms. Her area of research associated with venous access devices is supported by NIH, NINR funding and includes health care disparities research in cancer patients and caregivers. Her nursing research on educational formats includes the development of a clinical format for ease of use regarding information on laboratory tests and diagnostic procedures. These areas of research are complemented by her clinical expertise in critical care oncology.

 (back to top)

Sunita Dodani, MD, FCPS, MSc, PhD, GCPS, FAHA

Assistant Dean and Assistant Professor, Health Environments and Systems
Schools of Nursing, Graduate Studies and Medicine

Dr. Dodani has successfully completed research projects that focused on the determinants and prevention of cardiovascular disease and increasing epidemiology research capacity. Her current focus involves profiling cardiovascular risk factors in south Asian immigrants. Dr. Dodani has published numerous articles on her research and related issues, and recently completed a pilot project looking at the prevalence of CAD and Apo A-1 polymorphism in this group. She received a National Gold Medal as Best Young Researcher of Pakistan in 2002, in addition to several awards for her achievements in this area.

 (back to top)

Janie Heath, PhD, APRN-BC, ANP, ACNP, FAAN

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor

Department of Physiological and Technological Nursing

Schools of Nursing and Graduate Studies

Dr. Janie Heath has advanced nursing knowledge most predominantly through her scholarship with tobacco control. The results of her research includes: (1) the first national study to identify and report the lack of tobacco education in nursing curricula (Am J Crit Care, 2002) and (2) the first study to report a national nursing curricular model to improve tobacco education (Nurs Res, 2006). In addition, as a result of an intervention she envisioned and initiated in 2003, over 80 schools of nursing faculty members received training at The Summer Institute for Tobacco Control Practices.  Subsequently the participants provided tobacco education to over 4000 students.  For clinical contributions with tobacco control, she examined the effectiveness of a non-FDA approved potentially reduced-exposure tobacco product for smoking cessation compared to the FDA approved COMMIT lozenges among low nicotine smokers.  The 12 week-program included three groups: smokers on low nicotine Quest, extra low nicotine Quest, and Commit.  All groups received weekly counseling and biological markers assessment such as carbon monoxide, urine cotinine, and blood pressure.

 (back to top)

Lucy Marion, PhD, RN, FAAN

Dean and Professor, Department of Biobehavioral Nursing
Schools of Nursing and Graduate Studies

Advanced practice nursing care management and STD prevention are the foci of Dr. Marion's research. Her work is funded by NINR, Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, HRSA Division of Nursing, and local funding agencies.  Her current study funded by NINR (R01) is titled STD prevention of at-risk African American women.  The purpose of the study is to test the effectiveness of a 12-month intervention to prevent STD re-infections among low-income African American women living on Chicago's Westside. The Westside has the highest rate of chlamydia in Chicago, and the Chicago rate is 4 times the national rate. The Specific Aim is to determine the effects of the intervention as indicated by mediating outcome measures--social, psychological, and behavioral variables--and outcome STD re-infections.

 (back to top)

 Elizabeth (Beth) G. NeSmith, PhD, RN

 Assistant Professor, Department of Physiological and Technological Nursing

 School of Nursing

Dr. NeSmith’s clinical work with vulnerable populations in emergency, trauma, and critical care settings has informed her research program, which focuses on health disparities in acute outcomes of life-threatening injury.  Among Dr. NeSmith’s publications is research which shows only 2% of injury investigations have focused on this important issue, a National Institutes of Health research priority (NeSmith, 2006).  Dr. NeSmith’s work is based on the theoretical relationships proposed in the Psychoneuroimmunology and Vulnerable Populations Conceptual Frameworks (Flaskerud & Winslow, 1998).  Utilizing translational research models in collaboration with a multidisciplinary research team, Dr. NeSmith studies the effects of lifetime chronic stress on inflammatory function, and how these effects impact vulnerability to sepsis and multiple organ failure in the acute care setting following life-threatening injury. Her research trajectory includes investigations which will add to increasing evidence supporting her theory that chronic stress creates sub-clinical physiologic changes which, when impacted by the multiple life-threatening injury, predispose clients to differences in vulnerability and response to treatment for sepsis and multiple organ failure. Dr. NeSmith’s research will lead to advances in tailoring individual treatments to prevent and improve sepsis and multiple organ failure outcomes in clients with acute, life-threatening injuries.

 (back to top)

Mary Ellen Quinn, PhD, RN

 Associate Professor, Department of Health Environment and Systems
 Schools of Nursing and Graduate Studies

Dr. Quinn's research trajectory has focused on gerontology, with an emphasis on prolonging independence in community dwelling elders. Her early studies were of a theoretical nature and examined intraindividual change and interindividual differences in health-seeking behavior, health orientation, and mood of older women. Participation in interdisciplinary projects has resulted in Dr. Quinn's study of predictors of nutritional health-seeking behaviors of sexagenarians, octogenarians, and centenarians, and a study of correlates of subjective health in these three cohorts of older adults. Dr. Quinn's MCGRI funded project explored the health characteristics of older assisted living facility residents. This project has resulted in a study of the differences in health status and health care needs of residents with dementia and mild cognitive impairment. Another target population of her studies has been underserved elders. She recently collaborated on a community based interdisciplinary intervention study of exercise in underserved older men and women, funded by MCG and the University of Georgia. The next step in Dr. Quinn's research pathway is to test a culturally sensitive exercise intervention for older African American women.

 (back to top)

Marlene Rosenkoetter, PhD, RN, FAAN

 Professor, Department of Health Environment and Systems
 Schools of Nursing and Graduate Studies

Dr. Rosenkoetter's primary area of research is on the psychosocial adjustment to retirement and adjustment to later life. Her study of 1500 subjects funded by a Fortune 500 corporation has been published in a number of journals, quoted in the national media including Time Magazine, and widely presented at national and international gerontological conferences, including the Pan American Congress and World Congress on Aging.  Other research interests and publications include the impact of hurricanes on the elderly, educational research, and clinical practice research. Dr. Rosenkoetter is recognized as an expert on global nursing and health and has presented research internationally. She has mentored over 300 student research projects and theses, and has taught research at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Dr. Rosenkoetter is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the Gerontological Society of America, American Society on Aging, several other professional nursing organizations, and other honorary societies. She serves on several editorial and review boards for refereed journals.

 (back to top)

Judith Salzer, PhD, MBA, CPNP

Associate Dean for Strategic Management and Associate Professor

Department of Health Environments and Systems

Schools of Nursing and Graduate Studies

Dr. Salzer's research interests include grandparent caregivers, mental health and outcomes of children raised by grandparents, program evaluation and costing of educational programs.  Dr. Salzer's program evaluation of the School of Nursing's Healthy Grandparent Program revealed statistically significant increases in resources, social support, family stability and family empowerment after participation in the program.  In addition, areas for process improvements were identified.  Her pilot study of the prevalence of mental health problems in children being raised by grandparents indicated that this population may have significantly more mental health problems than the general population.  Dr. Salzer is currently studying methods of costing nursing education.  She has received numerous grants related to the Healthy Grandparent Program.

 (back to top)

Autumn Schumacher, PhD, RN

Assistant Professor, Department of Physiological & Technological Nursing

 Schools of Nursing and Graduate Studies

Dr. Schumacher's primary research involves investigating how the autonomic nervous system influences the initiation, maintenance and termination of ventricular fibrillation by photographing cardiac electrical activity with voltage-sensitive fluorescent dye, then using linear and nonlinear techniques to analyze the pixel data.  Her secondary investigations involve elucidating the multidimensional relationship between the autonomic nervous system and the phenomenon of heart rate variability by using linear and nonlinear techniques to analyze R-R interval data.  The long-term goal in both research areas is to develop real-time nonlinear patient monitors. This technology would advance clinical practice and improve the efficacy of medical monitoring devices.

 (back to top)

Tami Thomas , PhD, CPNP, RNC

Assistant Professor, Department of Biobehavioral Nursing

Schools of Nursing and Graduate Studies

Dr. Thomas’ extensive nursing career in acute care, nursing administration and advanced practice nursing is the foundation for her research in health risks and health care disparities. Her minor in epidemiology provides additional expertise in infectious diseases and in her current focus on reduction of STIs in emerging adults. Using mix methods designs in her research, Dr. Thomas was named Academic Partner of the Year by University Health Services acknowledging her contributions as an ARNP in women’s wealth and her research results effecting changes to Student Health Care Center policy at Florida International University. Dr Thomas has recieved funding to support her work in health risks and health care disparities in university students and parent's knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and intent to vaccinate thier daughters with the new HPV vaccine.
Her future directions include the influence of culture and ethnicity on access to health care and the development of advanced practice nursing interventions to decrease health risks, health care disparities and sexually transmitted infections.

 (back to top)