Johns Hopkins School of Nursing (JHSON) faculty and students received appointments, leadership opportunities and awards galore, and are making their presence felt at an assortment of conferences.

Moving on Up

As part of an inaugural cohort, Deborah Gross, DNSc, RN, FAAN, will serve as an Ambassador for the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research (FNINR). Selected for her impressive clinical research activities and knowledge, she will help educate state and federal policy makers on the importance of nursing research and how funding will benefit Americans’ health. She will also be a resource for members of Congress and local media.

Jodi Shaefer, RN, PhD, was chosen to be the Director of the National Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Resource Center (NFIMR). After beginning her work at the NFIMR in the early ’90s, Shaefer created educational programs on bereavement support and the FIMR process, and published various scholarly articles on grief and loss, bereavement, and home visiting. She will remain an adjunct SON faculty and plans to provide students with opportunities to participate in policy-level decisions through the NFIMR.

One of 55 chosen women, Tener Goodwin Veenema, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, will be part of the 2014 class of the women’s development group Leadership America. Goodwin Veenema will attend sessions to address complex issues, consider new ways of listening and relating to diverse societies, identify areas of common interest, exchange ideas, and meet with national and community leaders. She was also invited by Chief Nurse of the American Red Cross Linda Macintyre to serve as Macintyre’s senior adviser and assistant to the Federal Nursing Services Council.

Hayley Mark, PhD, MPH, RN, was promoted to Associate Professor on the Practice Track in the Department of Community and Public Health. With years of research and advocacy in sexually transmitted disease prevention, Mark is nationally recognized for her practice and leadership. She is the Director of the SON Bachelor of Nursing Program, and she has received the SON New Investigator Award and the Johns Hopkins University Diversity Recognition Award.

Chosen for her outstanding nursing leadership, Pamela Jeffries, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN, will be a Leadership Mentor in the Sigma Theta Tau International and Elsevier Foundation 2014-2015 Nurse Faculty Leadership Academy. As a mentor, Jeffries will foster academic career success, encourage leadership development, and create a supportive academic work environment for an aspiring nursing leader mentee.

Awards Galore

Marisa Wilson, DNSc, MHSc, RN-BC, will be recognized as a “Nursing Informatics Leader” at the 12th International Congress on Nursing Informatics in Taipei. Through extensive work with Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform (TIGER)—a project designed to increase knowledge and competency of informatics in academic and healthcare settings—Wilson has provided tools for faculty and educators to teach informatics. She will also give a presentation on the Virtual Learning Environment.

Deborah Finnell, DNS, PMHNP-BC,CARN-AP, FAAN, was a recipient of the Johns Hopkins Primary Care Consortium 2014 Small Grant Award for her submission “Comparing Two Brief Interventions for Alcohol Use: A Feasibility Study.” Also on brief interventions, Finnell’s article “Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT),” co-edited by Christine Savage, PhD, RN, CARN, FAAN, was a most-viewed article on the Journal of Addictions Nursing website.

Through the American Pain Society’s Young Investigator Travel Support Program, PhD Candidate Gyasi Moscou-Jackson received funding to attend its 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting. At the conference, she will present "The Moderating Effect of Sleep Fragmentation on the Association of Sleep Duration and Pain in Adults with Sickle Cell Disease" and "Adaptive Positive Affect Regulation Attenuates the Effect of Poor Sleep on Pain in Sickle Cell Disease."

Making Their Presence Felt

  • At the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners conference, Beth Sloand, PhD, RN, PNP-BC, FAAN, Chakra Budhathoki, PhD, and Joan Kub, PhD, MA, PHCNS, BC, presented "An Intervention to Address Bullying in 5th Grade Students," and JoAnne Silbert-Flagg, DNP, CPNP, IBCLC, (co-chair of the Breastfeeding Special Interest Group) discussed breastfeeding at the Complementary and Alternative Medicine roundtable. In addition, DNP student Emily Gutierrez gave a presentation on "Natural Health Product Clinical Management," Shawna Mudd, DNP, CPNP-AC, PNP-BC, attended the conference as a member of the Position Statement Committee and the Asthma and Allergy and Acute Care special interest groups, and Brigit VanGraafeiland, DNP, CRNP, participated in the Adolescent Health and Child Welfare special interest group.
  • Deborah Gross, DNSc, RN, FAAN, gave the keynote presentation “Adding Value to Research: What Questions Should We Be Asking?” at the Midwest Nursing Research Society’s Annual Meeting.
  • At a Johns Hopkins training grant seminar on aging, cognition, and neurodegenerative disorders, Laura Gitlin, PhD, gave a talk on “Nonpharmacological Approaches in Dementia Care.”
  • Cynthia Foronda, PhD, RN, CNE, delivered “Use of Virtual Clinical Simulation to Improve Communication Skills of Baccalaureate Nursing Students: A Pilot Study” at the 28th Annual Conference of the Southern Nursing Research Society.
  • At the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists Annual Conference, Kathleen White, PhD, RN, NE-BC, FAAN, presented “The Challenge of Integrating Outcomes Education and Research in a Curriculum” and Julie Stanik-Hutt, PhD, ACNP/GNP-BC, CCNS, FAAN, presented “Educational Innovations to Increase the Visibility of Clinical Nurse Specialists.” She also talked about workforce data and preparation of nurses. At the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Greater Washington Area Chapter Conference, Stanik-Hutt presented “Issues and Updates on Advanced Practice Nursing in Acute and Critical Care” and led a concurrent session on “Immunosuppression in Solid Organ Transplantation.”
  • Center for Global Nursing Program Manager Kevin Ousman and Faculty Associate Adam Beaman attended the launch of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Global Development Lab.