Research Honors Program Faculty Mentors

Patricia Abbott, PhD, RN, FAAN 
Dr. Abbott's research is focused upon health information technology and its impacts upon patients, families, communities, and healthcare processes. Dr. Abbott's current research is focused upon using 4G wireless telehomecare technologies in Baltimore City to study the impact upon disease management skills and disease knowledge in African American congestive heart failure patients. Dr. Abbott is also the PI of a HITECH grant which is developing a national curriculum to health information technology workforce scale-up. Dr. Abbott is also involved in studying the impact of information and communication technologies in global health.

Jerilyn Allen, ScD, RN, FAAN
"Reducing Total Cardiovascular Risk in an Urban Community"
This study is based on the premise that a community-based participatory research partnership model using a team of an advanced practice nurse case manager, community health worker, and physician, can be translated into urban community clinics and can improve the quality of care and reduce disparities in cardiovascular health in minority and other underserved populations.

Jacquelyn Campbell, PhD, RN, FAAN
Dr. Campbell's overall research and policy initiatives are in the area of family violence and violence against women, with continuous research funding since 1984 from NIH. Specific research areas include risk factors and assessment for intimate partner homicide, abuse during pregnancy, marital rape, physical and mental health effects of intimate partner violence, prevention of dating violence and interventions to prevent and address domestic violence.

Cheryl Dennison, PhD, RN, ANP
The goal of this research project is to design and pilot test an innovative, web-based clinical decision support system (CDSS) to improve provider (nurse and physician) implementation of national guidelines and improve quality of care among HF patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Jason Farley, PhD, MPH, CRNP
Dr. Farley's current research involves the epidemiologic interactions of patients with HIV/AIDS and drug resistance infections. He currently is participating in research projects on multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in South Africa as well as MRSA colonization and prevention studies among persons with HIV/AIDS in Baltimore.

Laura Gitlin, PhD
Home-based interventions; nonpharmacologic approaches in dementia care; innovative depression treatments for low income, minority older adults, family caregiving, functional disability.

Nancy Glass, PhD, MPH, RN
Health Disparities, Intimate Partner Violence, Community-based participatory research methods.

Douglas Granger, PhD
Dr. Granger is a psychoneuroendocrinology researcher who is well known for his development of methods related to saliva collection and analysis and the theoretical and statistical integration of salivary measures into developmental research.

Deborah Gross, DNSC, RN, FAAN
Dr. Gross' research focuses on the prevention of mental health problems in young children. This research primarily centers on working with parents of children at elevated risk for social and emotional disorders in the first 5 years of life.

Hae-Ra Han, PhD, RN
Dr. Han's primary research interests are developing and evaluating community-based outreach programs for cancer prevention and cardiovascular health promotion in ethnic minorities. Dr. Han currently is investigating the effect of a community health worker outreach intervention program combined with computerized tailored health messages on improving cancer screening behaviors among predominantly monolingual Korean American women.

Nancy Hodgson, PhD, RN
Dr. Hodgson’s overall research expertise is in applied gerontology with an emphasis on the testing of palliative care interventions for older adults with cognitive and physical frailties at the end of life. Her current project integrates biological and behavioral data collection to study the effects of a sensory-based intervention designed to alleviate neuroendocrine distress in older adults with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Deborah Jones, PhD, RN 
Dr. Jones' research focuses on cardiovascular health disparities and the social and behavioral factors associated with behavior change for hypertension control.

Sharon Kozachik, PhD, RN 
Sleep, HPA Axis Activity, and Paclitaxel-Induced Neuropathic Pain
Improved symptom control and reduced decrements in physical and social functioning are key indicators of quality of life for persons undergoing cancer treatment. Peripheral neuropathy is a painful and dose-limiting side effect of many chemotherapeutic agents, particularly paclitaxel. The purpose of this research is to determine sex and HPA axis responsivity differences of rats in sleep changes due to paclitaxel-induced mechanical hypersensitivity.

Joan Kub, PhD, APHN, BC 
Dr. Kub's research interests are in examining the consequences of domestic violence, dating violence, and bullying behavior in youth. She also is involved in projects that examine the role spirituality plays in health and recovery.

Miyong Kim, PhD, RN, FAAN
Cardiovascular health promotion or cancer prevention research, research methods of cross-cultural research and program evaluation; instrumentation, statistical analyses and intervention evaluation; prevalence, risk factors, and factors associated with prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease among Korean American immigrants

Hayley Mark, PhD, RN, MPH
Accuracy of Serological Assays for Diagnosis of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV-1) and 2 (HSV-2) The goal of this research project is to determine the clinical utility of serological tests for HSV-1 and HSV-2 and to develop testing strategies and recommendations for screening and counseling asymptomatic populations for HSV-

Marie Nolan, PhD, MPH, RN
Factors Related to Living Organ Donor Decision
The purpose of this study is to use quantitative hypothesis testing and qualitative analysis to examine the relationship of situational and relational factors in decision-making to outcomes associated with partial liver and kidney donation.

Gayle Page, DNSc, RN, FAAN
Dr. Page is investigating the impact of pain exposure early in life on pain processing and risk for depression at maturity.

Sarah (Jodi) Shaefer, PhD, RN
Practice and research areas of interest include adolescent bereavement, the 'back to sleep' campaign for SIDS risk reduction, fetal and infant mortality review (FIMR) as a public health process, cross cultural expressions of grief and loss following infant death, utilization of evidence based practice in undergraduate nursing research. She also works with early childhood education in the east Baltimore neighborhood.

Sarah Szanton, PhD, CRNP
Dr. Szanton will not be accepting any Honors students at this time.

Laura Taylor, PhD, RN
Dr. Taylor will not be accepting any Honors students at this time.

Nicole Warren, PhD, MPH, CNM
The research honor student will assist with an IRB-approved internet-based study assessing African nursing faculty perspectives on global health competencies for nurses. The work would be almost entirely web-based with communication with African nursing faculty and institutions. The student involved would gain experience in IRB protocols, survey administration and analysis.

Jennifer Wenzel, PhD, RN, CCM
Building the foundation for an intervention to provide health care and health system navigation services to cancer patients and families through the process of diagnosis and treatment. The planned intervention will be targeted to assist individuals who are at risk for poor outcomes due to race/ethnicity (African Americans), age (elders), and rurality.