Voice News, spring 2024
Community
Four nurses from Belize—Ingrid Asusenia Gomez, Marcia Aldana-Lennen, Areli Rodriguez, and Brithney Ortega—were awarded CSON master’s degrees in May and will become the inaugural faculty members at St. John’s College nursing school in Belize. CSON and St. John’s partnered to launch the new school to address Belize’s nursing shortage. The four are pictured here, flanking St. John’s College President Mirtha Alicia Peralta (center). Read more in Boston College Magazine
In March, the Connell School welcomed more than 100 nurses from 11 major health care institutions and schools of nursing to campus for the Greater Boston Nursing Collaborative (GBNC) meeting. Through GBNC, nurses work together on strategic initiatives designed to advance the science and practice of integrative nursing.
BC School of Social Work Professor Summer Sherburne Hawkins, a social epidemiologist whose research interests include health disparities among women and children, was appointed the inaugural associate director of the interdisciplinary Global Public Health and the Common Good undergraduate program, which is housed in the Connell School. Read in BC News
In March, CSON and BC’s School of Social Work hosted Empowering Wellness: A Journey through Mental and Physical Health in Black and Brown Communities, a three-day event at Robsham Theater.
Research
Two teams were awarded CSON Innovation Grants, which fund small research projects essential to supporting large external research grant applications:
Eunji Cho and Lindsey Camp
Assistant Professor Eunji Cho and colleagues, including Assistant Professor Lindsey Camp, faculty from BC’s School of Social Work, and clinicians from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital, for their project “Promoting Human Flourishing: A Photovoice Study on the Optimal Health Care Model for Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer.”
Melissa Uveges and Karen Lyons
Assistant Professor Melissa Uveges and her team, which includes Professor Karen Lyons, for their project “Understanding Family Management of Pediatric Heterozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia.”
Christopher Lee, the Barry Family/Goldman Sachs Professor, is one of 30 world-renowned nurse scientists to be inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame in July.
Lee and six Ph.D. students, Nickie Burney; David Geyer, M.S. ’19; Amy Goh; Katherine Ladetto ’96, M.S. ’02; Jacqueline Massaro; and Danielle Walker, M.S. ’16, presented at the Dublin-Boston Ph.D. Research Blitz. This forum is a collaboration with Trinity College Dublin’s School of Nursing & Midwifery where Ph.D. students can discuss their research. Boston College and Trinity College signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a formal partnership in December. Read about this partnership
Assistant Professor Cherlie Magny-Normilus received an Academic Nursing Early Career Scholarship Award from the Massachusetts Association of Colleges of Nursing. She was recognized for her research on cardiometabolic disease experienced by vulnerable immigrant populations and her efforts to promote advanced nursing education levels in Haiti.
Publications and presentations
CSON faculty and their teams are prolific in their scholarly output, including:
Publications
- Using machine learning to understand health disparities, by Associate Dean Diana Bowser
- Fine-tuning a storytelling intervention for young cancer survivors, by Assistant Professor Eunji Cho
- Overuse of benzodiazepines in older European adults, by Professor Elizabeth Howard
Presentations
- Nurses contributing to a resilient workforce and healthy communities, by Professor Susan Gennaro
- The link between vaginitis and sexually transmitted infections, by Instructor Alison Marshall
- Improving tuberculosis care in South Africa, by Assistant Professor Brittney van de Water
Faculty
Students and alumni
Events
Adelene Egan ’18 received the 15th annual Dean Rita P. Kelleher Award in April. She works in the Emergency Department at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Denetra Hampton, a 22-year Navy veteran, former United States Naval Nurse Corps Officer, and founder of For Nurses By Nurses Productions, presented CSON’s spring Pinnacle lecture, “Advancing the Health Sciences through Scientific Storytelling.” Prior to the lecture, Hampton’s film “The Black Angels: A Nurse’s Story” was screened. Pictured (left) with students Christina Sanon and Amy Li.