Year in review 2022-2023
YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023
Dean Katherine E. Gregory
One of the wonderful things about life within a university is the pattern of the academic year. It’s unique in the way it ebbs and flows: familiar but never repetitive, a constant that’s always teeming with change. And while I’m grateful for the pattern as a whole, I’m particularly grateful for this moment in the year when we take stock of our recent achievements and look forward to the opportunities ahead.
As I reflect on this past academic year, I find myself thinking of our legacy as a Jesuit, Catholic institution. I think, too, about our future in an increasingly connected world where complex health systems continue to evolve. But mostly I think about how inspired I am by my colleagues here at Boston College, and by you—my colleagues in nursing and health.
I want to thank you for taking the time to read this and for looking at the information that follows. It seems that now, more than ever, our attention is the most valuable commodity we can give. Perhaps that’s what makes our beloved profession so universally trusted. Nurses pay attention. We dedicate ourselves to others. We listen. We care. We respect.
Wishing you health and wellness,
Katherine E. Gregory
Dean, Connell School of Nursing
Research
Community
BC adds Public Health major
A new Connell School undergraduate major, Global Public Health and the Common Good, launches in the fall, in partnership with the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society.
Excellence in nursing education
The National League for Nursing (NLN) named CSON a 2022 NLN Center of Excellence for its success in faculty development, nursing education research, student learning, professional development, and academic progression in nursing.
Alliance between nursing schools
CSON signed a memorandum of understanding with Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan College of Nursing in the Philippines to support academic and research collaboration between the two Jesuit nursing schools.
Faculty
Interim Associate Dean for Graduate Programs Andrew Dwyer was named a Macy Faculty Scholar, joining a select cohort of educators in medicine and nursing in career development and implementation of a scholarly project.
The National Collaborative for Health Equity accepted Leah Gordon, associate dean for inclusive excellence, diversity, and belonging, into the second cohort of its Culture of Health Leaders Institute for Racial Healing, which is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Associate Dean for Research Christopher S. Lee was named the Barry Family/Goldman Sachs Endowed Chair in Nursing, which was established by a gift from Boston College Trustee Associate Steven M. Barry ’85 and Tammy J. Barry ’85, M.Ed. ’87.
Associate Professor of the Practice Aimee Milliken, a national leader in nursing ethics, was profiled in a Boston College Magazine feature story.
Assistant Professor of the Practice Melissa Pérez Capotosto was awarded a Diversity Supplement Grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Students
- D.N.P. student Esther Apraku Bondzie, M.S. ’22, was awarded a 2022 New England Minority Nurse Leadership Conference Scholarship.
- Ph.D. candidate Amy Delaney was named Distinguished NP of the Year by the Massachusetts Coalition of Nurse Practitioners for her policy, practice, and research. She also received the Ann Stadtler Excellence in Practice Award from the Mass. chapter of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.
- Ph.D. candidates Erin George and Amy Goh earned Nurses Educational Funds Scholarships. George also received the 2022 March of Dimes Margaret Comerford Freda “Saving Babies, Together®” Award from the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses for her study “Decision-Making and Care Experiences at Birth Centers in the United States.
- Ph.D. student Rose LaPlante was accepted into the Academy for Emerging Leaders in Patient Safety Program.
- D.N.P. students Gina Pallanta; Julie Sanders, M.S., ’22; and Katherine Valovcin presented “Reducing Weight Bias in Nursing: A Review of Effective Educational Interventions” at NETNEP 2022, an international nurse education conference in Barcelona.
Alumni
- Jennie Chin Hansen ’70, H’08, was awarded a UCSF Medal—the highest honor given by the University of California, San Francisco—for her work leading systemic change in senior health care. She was also named one of 12 “Sages of Aging” in the American Society on Aging’s Legacy Interviews series of leading experts in the field of gerontology.
- Sara Dolan Looby, Ph.D. ’08, received an A. Clifford Barger Mentoring Award from the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Office for Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Partnership. Looby is an HMS assistant professor of medicine and a clinical investigator in Mass. General’s Metabolism Unit and its Munn Center for Nursing Research.
- Briana Sasso Ferreira ’20 received a Rookie of the Year Award from the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
- Anne P. Manton, M.S. ’81, was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame in recognition of her 60-year career as a practicing nurse, educator, leader, editor, and mentor.
75TH ANNIVERSARY
The end of CSON’s 75th anniversary year was marked by a celebration with a keynote presentation by Dean Katherine E. Gregory and a panel discussion with Brianna Cheatham ’22; Marsha Maurer, M.S. ’90, Karen Jennings Mathis, M.S. ’11, Ph.D. ’16; and Rolando Perea ’85.
SPRING PINNACLE LECTURE
Jennie Chin Hansen ’70, H’08, a nationally recognized thought leader on the health care needs of older adults, presented the spring Pinnacle lecture “Reflections and Projections: My Career at the Vanguard of Public Health Policy.”
FALL PINNACLE LECTURE
Angelleen Peters-Lewis, Ph.D. ’06, COO and chief nurse executive at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, presented the fall Pinnacle lecture “Seizing the Momentum: Elevating Nursing Post-Pandemic.”
DEAN RITA P. KELLEHER AWARD
Marsha Maurer, M.S. ’90, a former senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, received CSON’s Dean Rita P. Kelleher Award.
GRAND ROUNDS
CSON welcomed four speakers to its Grand Rounds lecture series to speak on topics including:
- Advising Primiparous Women during Early Labor
- The Neglected Senses: A Program of Research Investigating Taste and Smell in Disease States
- Intervention Designs to Modify Social Determinants of Health
- Nurse Practitioners and Value-Based Care: The Perfect Marriage
SYMPOSIUM: TRAUMA OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
Margaret Moss, Ph.D., J.D., RN, FAAN, gave the keynote address at the virtual symposium, Structural Determinants of Health: Trauma of the Indigenous People in North America. She is an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation and has equal lineage as Canadian Sioux/ Saskatchewan. She directs the First Nations House of Learning and is an associate professor of nursing at the University of British Columbia.
Speakers also discussed reducing violence, human trafficking, and implications for change in indigenous communities.
International Programs
CSON resumed its international immersion and education trips for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
