SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Prior to nursing school, Sara received her Bachelor of Science degree from 

Cornell University in Policy Analysis and Management in 2009. She worked as a 

clinical research coordinator at the Mount Sinai Medical Center on multiple oncology 

and public health grants and was awarded the 1st annual Distinguished Professor 

Program in Cancer Research Best Poster Award for her poster on attrition rates in 

cancer research. Her passion for healthcare and helping people, led her to return to 

school as a second degree, accelerated nursing student at NYU Rory Meyers College 

of Nursing, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude in January 2013. She was also 

working part time as a research assistant at NYU College of Medicine/NYU Langone 

Medical Center during her accelerated program, and received multiple scholarships and 

awards, including: the Rudin scholarship from NYU, the Rita and Alex Hillman 

Seamless Scholarship through NYU, finalist for the NYU Auxiliary Scholarship, Dean’s 

list for three semesters, University Honors Scholar, and induction in the Sigma Theta 

Tau International Honor Society. Upon licensure as a nurse, she became a staff nurse 

at New York Presbyterian-Columbia on a medical step-down unit where she worked 

with many pre-op lung transplant patients. Her love of taking care of critically ill patients 

led her to transfer to the Medical Intensive Care Unit at NYU Langone Medical Center, 

where her understanding of the interplay of acute and chronic illness empowered her to 

provide holistic nursing care. She returned to school as a Post BS-DNP Acute Care 

Nurse Practitioner student in the fall of 2015. She is currently certified by the American 

Association of Critical-Care Nurses for Critical Care (CCRN) and Progressive Care 

nursing (PCCN). In her free time, she also is a reader/grader for an undergraduate class 

at NYU Rory Meyers and volunteers at the American Museum of Natural History as a 

living exhibit explainer. 

In alignment with the Jonas Scholarship priority area of chronic health care, Sara 

will focus her DNP Scholarly Project on patients with advanced chronic obstructive lung 

diseases with the goal of impacting the health, quality of life and access to care for this 

population of patients. Her specific interest lies in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) who, 

due to recent advances that have drastically improved their life expectancy, now need 

continuity of care as they age out of specialized pediatric healthcare teams into nonspecialized 

adult care settings. She seeks to address the lack of healthcare infrastructure for the adult CF cystic fibrosis patient with an emphasis on carecoordination, self-management, and peer support to minimize disability and normalize life experiences for this growing population of underserved individuals. Her background in public healthcare policy and clinical skill set as a critical care nurse will enable an innovative approach to meeting the unique needs of CF patients. Parameters