SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Jolie Crowder, MSN, RN, CCM is a PhD student at the University of Virginia (UVA). She received her RN diploma from Richmond Memorial School of Nursing, then went on to complete the RN-BSN program at Syracuse University and received her Master of Science degree in Nursing (MSN) from the University of Virginia. She graduated from both programs with honors. Her MSN focus was health systems management, with an emphasis on quality improvement initiatives. Crowder has worked in a variety of positions since graduating with her MSN, including positions in health policy, aging and public health program development and evaluation, and health care quality improvement advocacy at the national level. Crowder is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and the Southern Nurses Research Society. She serves as a graduate teaching assistant at UVA as well as continues part-time work in the private and nonprofit sectors. In recent years, she worked for a small nonprofit whose mission was to improve the well-being of elder American Indian and Alaska Natives, which triggered her deep interest in the population. Her doctoral research is on elder abuse in the American Indian and Alaska Native population; focused on the intersection of the fields of aging, abuse, disadvantaged populations and health policy.

Vanessa Curlee just completed her first year in Duke University’s School of Nursing PhD program. She received a BA in both History and Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in 2007, she returned to school matriculating into Winston-Salem State University’s (WSSU) Accelerated BSN Program. After completing her BSN, she entered the U.S. Army as a commissioned officer. During her time in the U.S. Nurse Corps, she gained clinical experience as a staff nurse on the Medical/Oncology and an ICU step down units. Her professional and personal experiences have fostered a deep commitment to serving disparate and underserved health populations. In 2013, Vanessa Curlee was chosen as a member of the first cohort of the WSSU-Duke University’s Bridges to the Doctorate Scholar Program. In 2015, she graduated from WSSU’s Master of Science Nursing program with a concentration in Family Nurse Practitioners and a research intensive concentration. Her interest in doctoral study if firmly rooted in the belief that advanced research and scholarship will be the key to developing viable solutions to the ever evolving challenges in healthcare. Her research interests focuses on continued research on improving methods in identifying and treating mental illness among both US minorities and geographical and underserved populations.