PhD Student Tamryn Gray Named Minority Nurse Faculty Scholar

As a second-year PhD student and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholar, Tamryn Gray has also been named a Minority Nurse Faculty Scholar by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Through funding from the Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future, Gray will receive financial support, mentoring, and leadership development opportunities. Once she graduates, she will commit to teaching in a U.S. nursing school for each year of her funding. The scholarship program was specifically designed to address the national nursing faculty shortage and enhance diversity among nurse educators.

“It is a privilege to receive this scholarship that acknowledges and responds to a national need within the nursing profession,” says Gray. “I look forward to the opportunities made possible in helping the next generation as a future nurse educator.”

Prior to coming to JHSON, Gray practiced as an oncology/bone marrow transplant nurse at Duke University Hospital in North Carolina helping pediatric patients and their families contend with complex, life-altering decisions about their care and treatment from diagnosis to survivorship or end-of-life. These clinical experiences and her time as a clinical faculty member at UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing compelled her to earn her PhD at JHSON to better understand the patient and family experience in making complex cancer treatment decisions.

With funding from the Oncology Nursing Society Foundation, Gray’s dissertation research will explore the decisional, sociocultural, ethical, and patient-family factors influencing treatment decision-making about cancer clinical trial participation. She recognizes that since clinical trials will ultimately become a defining aspect of cancer care across populations, it is important to understand decisional factors that affect participation and ultimately contribute to reducing cancer health disparities.

Check out two videos of Tamryn featured on the Johns Hopkins Nursing magazine site, and get a deeper glimpse into what inspires her research.