SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

In 2014, Ashley Vaughan graduated with honors from the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing. After graduation, her desire to work with families led her to work in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at UNC Hospitals. Before becoming a nurse, Ms. Vaughan obtained a Master of Science in Nutrition at Meredith College. This experience peaked her interest in chronic disease prevention and management, and also gave her an appreciation for research and evidence-based practice. Ms. Vaughan returned to the UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing in 2015 to pursue a PhD, and received the NRSA/NINR National Service Pre-doctoral Training Award for Interventions for Preventing and Managing Chronic Illness. Ms. Vaughan is interested in how families adapt to having a child with a chronic condition, with a focus on the influence of sociocultural factors on family management of chronic conditions. She plans to examine how experiences unique to military families, such as deployment and relocation, influence how families manage childhood chronic conditions. Ms. Vaughan is involved with research projects at the UNC School of Nursing including Dr. Marcia Van Riper’s mixed-methods study entitled ‘Adaptation and resilience in families of individuals with Down syndrome’ and Dr. Ruth Anderson’s qualitative study titled ‘Predictive decision-making for intensive care therapies.’ Ms. Vaughan’s goal is to become an academic nurse scientist, and she hopes her research will provide nurses and other healthcare professionals with tools to help families prevent and manage chronic conditions.