SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Kristin J. Wainwright is a 3rd year PhD student in the Duke University School of Nursing. Her research interests include genetics/genomics nursing, and symptom management in chronic illness. She earned a BA in the Natural Sciences from New College of Florida, a BSN from East Carolina University, and is a graduate of the NIH National Institute of Nursing Research Summer Genetics Institute. Kristin worked most recently in Neurosurgery Research at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, and served on the University and Medical Center IRB. She has taken part in a variety of research projects including a study on Florida Red Tide and human health with Mote Marine Laboratory, an occupational radiation exposure study in Vascular Interventional Radiology with Vidant Medical Center, as well as a multitude of neurosurgery-related clinical and device trials. While at Duke she has assisted with nursing mentorship and leadership projects, and serves as the Executive Secretary for both the Duke University Graduate and Professional Student Council, and the School of Nursing Student Council. For her dissertation she will be exploring symptoms and employment in adults with Multiple Sclerosis. She is married with three cats, and enjoys playing French horn with the Duke Medicine Orchestra.

McKenzie Wallace is a PhD student at Case Western Reserve University Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. Her program of research focuses on investigating genetic and lifestyle interactions with inflammation and the development of diseases of pregnancy. Ms. Wallace graduated from the University of Iowa in 2015 with her BSN and BA in International Studies and Global Health. While at the University of Iowa she worked with a research team investigating the interactions between lifestyle behaviors and manifestation of symptoms in a prodromal Huntington Disease population. This experience piqued her interest in the interaction between genes and lifestyle behaviors. While pursing a BA in International Studies and Global health, Ms. Wallace became particularly interested in maternal health and mortality. In her PhD program, Ms. Wallace is marrying her interests in lifestyle behaviors, genetics, and maternal health in her dissertation, which will investigate the associations between the LPA gene variants, physical activity, fat mass, stress, inflammation levels, and pregnancy induced hypertension and gestational diabetes. Ms. Wallace is a student liaison for the Emerging Scholars Network with MNRS and chair of the PhD Student Nursing Association at CWRU.

Alvin Walters grew up near Seattle, WA. After completing his BSN at Washington State University in Spokane, he began working for Seattle Children’s Hospital in the emergency department. In 2014 Alvin was accepted into the University of San Francisco’s BSN to DNP program, Family Nurse Practitioner track. Shortly after moving to the bay area Alvin began working for Stanford Health Care in their pediatric emergency department, which is where he works today. Alvin’s masters and doctoral research focuses on combating health disparities seen in low income populations. An example of this is his work with the Jonas foundation. For this work Alvin will be creating evidence based treatment pathways for pediatric patients presenting to rural emergency departments. These patients often have no reliable access to primary care services, face unique environmental challenges such as mold and pesticides, and must rely on emergency rooms for all of their care. Sadly small rural ED’s are not well designed to perform this function, and have little if no access to experienced pediatric healthcare providers. By designing realistic, functional, and easily implemented treatment pathways, Alvin will be able to bring the most current evidence based care to the patients in these settings. In the future, Alvin plans to continue working for a research/ teaching Magnet status hospital while simultaneously opening his own clinic for low income populations. Implementing his doctoral research in this way, Alvin hopes to bring the most current evidence based practice to the populations who need it the most.

I am in my fourth year in the PhD program at the University of Connecticut. My research interests include improving quality of life and quality of care for persons with dementia. I have a passion for caring for older adults and caring for patients with dementia, which has led me to starting a career on a geriatric psychiatric unit.