SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

I am a second year PhD student at Saint Louis University School of Nursing. My area of interest is oncology. For my dissertation, I am planning to use a mixed methods design to study the practices of oncology nurses with regard to addressing smoking cessation amongst patients with a cancer diagnosis. I completed my BSN at the University of Virginia (2006) and received and MS from the University of California San Francisco (2010). I worked for 7 years as a staff RN in an inpatient oncology unit and outpatient infusion clinic at the San Francisco Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center. During this time, I became certified as an Advanced Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist (AOCNS) and an AIDS Certified Nurse (ACRN). Throughout my undergraduate and graduate education, I also frequented South Africa to volunteer as a nurse. My activities included working with nurses in a mobile health clinic to deliver care to rural communities, providing supplies to local daycare centers and orphanages, developing and implementing a clean water project with engineering students, and offering financial support to help complete a school building in a local community. I also took a seminar on global health through UCSF to deepen my understanding of this developing area of research. As an undergraduate at UVa, I had the honor of being selected to live on the Lawn and received the Raven Society Scholarship. Additionally, I have been the recipient of the Marion Bender Scholarship for PhD students at Saint Louis University.