Community
In its 2025 Best Nursing Programs survey, U.S. News & World Report ranked the Connell School’s doctor of nursing practice 14th out of 158 and the master’s degree 26th out of 146 schools.
Nancy Gaden, M.S. ’87, received the Dean Rita P. Kelleher Award for alumni achievement at CSON’s Pinning Ceremony in May. Gaden is senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Boston Medical Center.
Pinnacle lecture
The spring Pinnacle lecture featured nurse scientist Patricia Dykes and a discussion of nursing involvement in the development of AI for health care, and how health informatics is changing the field. Dykes is a Harvard Medical School professor and research program director in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice. She was the Dr. Maureen P. McCausland Pinnacle Keynote Speaker.
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Alumni and students
Gaelyn Grant ’27, a Connell School undergraduate research fellow working with Associate Professor of the Practice Aimee Milliken, presented a poster and a presentation at the National Nursing Ethics Conference in Los Angeles in March.
Cheryl Slater, D.N.P. ’26, was awarded a first-place research prize for her poster “Improvement of Nurses and Neonatologists’ Knowledge and Expertise of the Neonatal Withdrawal Assessment Scale (NWAS) Tool” at the Eastern Nursing Research Society conference in Philadelphia. Her faculty mentor was Assistant Professor of the Practice Catherine Conahan.
Chizoba Nwosu ’05 received an Excellence Award at the New England Regional Black Nurses Association’s February award ceremony. Nwosu is associate chief nurse of Academic Affiliations, Operations, and NP Residencies at VA Boston Healthcare System.
Lyann Tam ’25 was part of the BC Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society’s delegation to COP29, the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November 2024.
Faculty
Publications and presentations
CSON faculty and their teams were prolific in their scholarly work, including:
Publications
- Family caregivers with depression and anxiety may be more vulnerable to sustained lower sleep efficiency, by Assistant Professor Soojung Ahn
- How diversion programs can stop a mental health crisis from becoming an emergency, by Victor Petreca, assistant professor and the director of CSON’s state-funded Center for Police Training in Crisis Intervention
- Role-playing simulation helps pediatric nurse practitioners build genomic competency, by Associate Professor of the Practice Laura White, Assistant Professor Brittney van de Water, and Associate Professor Andrew Dwyer
Presentations
- Pilot study looks at how to manage patients with palliative care needs and substance use disorder, by Assistant Professor of the Practice Sarah Given
- Personalized approach helps assisted living staff improve quality of life for older adults with cognitive impairment, with Associate Professor of the Practice Beth McNutt-Clarke, who served as the faculty mentor for a quality improvement project team, comprising Molly Abate, D.N.P. ’26, Courtney Mulvaney ’19, D.N.P. ’25, and Nadia Polad, M.Ed. ’06, D.N.P. ’25
- Public health and peace work as a primary prevention to war, by Shelley K. White, associate professor of the practice and director of experiential learning