SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Bradlee Jenkins is a BSN-PhD student in the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care track at the University of South Florida. As a first-generation college student, he graduated cum laude from East Tennessee State University in 2013 with nursing honors and was also inducted into Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. As an Honors-in-Discipline student, he made several contributions in pediatric pulmonology that led to three publications. Upon graduation, he worked two years as an RN in the critical care cardiovascular unit. His experience in caring for this population led him to pursue a PhD in nursing at USF. During his first year at USF, he worked as a teaching assistant, research assistant, and Vice President of the Society of Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Students. In collaboration with his academic advisor, Dr. Ponrathi Athilingam, he is working on a mobile application designed to help heart failure sufferers improve self-management while reducing hospital readmission costs. In addition, he was chosen to take on the role of Entrepreneurial Lead in a National Science Foundation funded program that taught him the framework of marketing this application to improve outcomes for both heart failure sufferers and healthcare professionals managing their care. Mr. Jenkins is currently examining cytokine markers in heart disease sufferers. Collectively, these experiences have allowed him to integrate his passion and skills as a mentor, researcher, innovator, and entrepreneur. His long-term goal is to serve others as a PhD faculty in order to immerse himself in cardiovascular research and educate future nursing professionals.