Noted Researcher Joins Faculty

By Mike Smith

Although she didn’t officially join the U of L School of Nursing faculty until Aug. 1, Sally Weinrich was in Louisville on Father’s Day weekend to promote prostate cancer screening.

Weinrich comes to U of L with impressive credentials.  She has been appointed a university scholar and was recognized as such during a special convocation at the Health Sciences Center.

Previously a faculty member at the University of South Carolina, Weinrich held the Dunn-Shealy Chair at the College of Nursing.

In nearly two decades of research, she has emphasized the need for early detection of cancer especially for the elderly, minorities, and people with low incomes and little education.

“It’s my belief that if you can present the need for early cancer detection in a way that all people can understand it, then they will take the necessary steps,” Weinrich says.  “Material needs to be written so that it can be easily understood and that’s vital to early detection of prostate and colon cancer.”

Her husband, Martin Weinrich, will also be joining the U of L faculty as a biostatistician in the Center for Health Services and Policy Research.  Weinrich and her husband often research and publish jointly.

Weinrich’s own father died when she was five-years-old, making her especially driven to help save the fathers of others.  To that end, she has successfully recruited men at-risk for prostate cancer into prostate cancer screenings.

She is now pursuing an interest in genetics.  She holds a Senior Fellowship in genetics with the National Institute of Nursing Research and has funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, to find the prostate cancer gene.

“One of Sally’s strongest assets is that she has acquired funding through the National Institute of Nursing Research,” Mary Mundt, dean of the School of Nursing, says.  “She also had NIH funding (to study) colon cancer.  The total of all her grants is over $1.5 million.  So, that’s really good for us.”

Weinrich has also received a National Cancer Institute grant to fund a prostate cancer project, and an American Cancer Society Institutional Grant to study the health practices and knowledge of cancer among the elderly.

Weinrich received her bachelor of science in nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1969, and her master of nursing and doctor of educational research from the University of South Carolina in 1980 and 1986 respectively.

Her awards and honors include the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award from the University of South Carolina College of Nursing, the Order of the Palmetto from the governor of South Carolina, and the Myrtle Irene Brown Award for Excellence in Nursing Research from the Alpha Xi Chapter if Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society in Columbia, S.C.

“We were happy in South Carolina, and the first time I was contacted by Dean Mundt, I told her I did not want to move,” Weinrich says.  “But after giving a presentation at U of L, I became excited about Louisville’s atmosphere toward research.  I like the way (U of L president) John Shumaker is committed to meeting the needs of the community which follows exactly to what my husband and I have dedicated our careers.”

Smith, M. (Summer, 1999).  Noted Researcher Joins Faculty.  School of Nursing Alumni Newsletter. 
Volume 19, pg. 8. 

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