SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Lisa Hilmi has an extensive career in global health and disaster relief, employing both human rights and community based participatory approaches to addressing disparities in health for women in children. Research and global projects have focused on injury surveillance/injury prevention in Asia, children’s health and psychosocial well-being post-disaster and post-conflict in Asia and Africa, gender and water issues in Cameroon, women’s livelihood to improve health and nutrition, HIV/AIDS/STI programs in Rwanda and Tanzania, disaster preparedness and humanitarian relief in Africa and Asia, and health concerns amongst internally displace persons and refugees. Ms. Hilmi completed her BA in Political Science/Communications at Villanova University, MPH at Columbia University, and her BSN at the University of Pennsylvania. She currently is the Secretary for Xi Chapter, Sigma Theta Tau International, Honor Society of Nursing. Her awards include the Sri Lanka Award for Advancing Nursing Practice, Dean’s Award for Innovation Games for Healthcare Challenge, as well as the Lillian Sholtis Brunner Award for Innovative Practice in Nursing. Ms. Hilmi’s program of research seeks to develop evidence-based, culturally relevant, interventions through innovative approaches to injury prevention for vulnerable adolescents in urban environments. Her dissertation research focuses on health disparities in the environment that contribute to adolescent motor vehicle crash injury, utilizing GIS spatial risk modeling to identify risk in urban communities. Her mentors are internationally acclaimed injury scientists, Dr. Lynn Sommers and Dr. Charles Branas. Ms. Hilmi works clinically as a pediatric emergency department nurse and mentors nursing and engineering students in global health projects.

I am currently in the 4.5 year RN to DNP program with a focus in primary care. I started my career in the US Army as an officer in the nurse corps. I have held leadership roles thru the military and currently practice in pediatrics. I have had various clinical experiences in and out of the service. My love of caring for veterans has brought me to this opportunity. My research focus of Military Sexual Trauma ( MST) is near and dear to my heart. I feel as a veteran it is an area that is often not addressed in the VA. Thru my research, I hope to lead the VA into an era where MST is identified sooner and treated more promptly for veterans.

Rachel Hirschey is a Ph.D. student in the school of nursing at Duke University. Her developing program of research is focused on health behavior change among chronically ill populations. Rachel has eight years clinical experience at Massachusetts General Hospital and University of California San Francisco working in a variety of units including surgical intensive care and orthopedics, where she was a charge nurse of the 36-bed unit. Rachel enjoys teaching as she regularly preceptor and mentored new graduate nurses. Additionally, she is an avid athlete with a passion for health and fitness and has 10+ years experience coaching athletes and personal training. Rachel’s current research allows her to blend her passion for patient care and fitness, as her dissertation work is focused on increasing levels of exercise among breast cancer survivors. Rachel serves as the Ph.D. representative to Duke School of Nursing student council. She is active in several national nursing organizations and recently received a scholarship from Oncology Nursing Society to present a poster a conference.

Elizabeth Holguin, MSN, MPH, FNP-BC is newly enrolled as a doctoral student at the University of New Mexico and will pursue a concentration in Health Policy. She received her Master’s of Public Health from Tulane University as a Master’s International student and served in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia. During her graduate studies, she also implemented an Infection Control Program in a government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, West Africa. She then went on to receive a Master’s of Science in Nursing degree from Duke University and became certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner. She was able to combine her passion for Neurosurgery and Public Health by managing a research program dedicated to reducing transport to a level one trauma center and increasing access to specialty care with telemedicine with a focus on mild traumatic brain injuries for Indian Health Service hospitals. Her research interests include increasing access to care, sustainability of care and resources, vulnerable and marginalized populations both locally and internationally, and traumatic brain injury.

Jeremy Honaker is currently a family nurse practitioner student in the MSN program and a PhD student at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). As a Legacy Fellow at CWRU, he is a member of a research team focusing on the effect of tissue iron levels and diverse microbial communities on wound healing. His clinical interests include dermatology, and the management of complex patients with non-healing or atypical wounds. As a graduate from the Emory University Wound, Ostomy, Continence education center, he have received extensive training in the management of various acute and chronic wounds. He practiced as a wound, ostomy, continence nurse (WOCN) for 11 years in the acute care setting and recently transitioned to working as an advanced clinical nurse in the department of dermatology at University Hospitals of Cleveland in 2013. His leadership roles have included consultant to the Kentucky Hospital Association, where he served in an educational capacity providing monthly webinars and as a consultant to Kentucky hospitals on initiatives to reduce pressure ulcer prevalence in their facilities. In addition, he served on the National WOCN society annual conference planning committee as the wound track co-chair. He was awarded the 2012 Journal of the WOCN research manuscript of the year award, and was recognized by the mid east region of the WOCN society as the 2012 WOC nurse of the year award. Following completion of his PhD, he intends to pursue a position as a nurse scientist in an academic setting.