SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Kay Bennett is an RN who is currently enrolled in the PhD program at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing. Kay received her BSN/MSN in Nursing and Health Systems Leadership from the University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN. Kay also received a BS in Marketing from Ball State University in Muncie, IN. Kay was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau and was recently awarded the Woman Child Health Initiative Predoctoral Scholarship from the Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing. Kay has worked with the community in several positions including Assisted Living Community Nurse in Indianapolis, Indiana, Free Clinic Medical Manager in Carmel, Indiana and most recently as a Nurse Consultant, 2014-2017, Belen Gualcho, Ocotepeque, Honduras where her goal was to reduce maternal and infant mortality in rural Hondurans. As a Woman Child Health Initiative Predoctoral scholar, Kay’s focus is nutrition in early childhood as a foundation for a lifespan of healthy food choices. Good nutrition is the best prevention for many chronic diseases including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Everyone must eat, and pre-school age children are a particularly vulnerable population without autonomy to choose and procure their own food. In a future nursing faculty position, her mission will be to mentor the next generation of nurse leaders.

Elizabeth Bilsborough is a 2nd year PhD student at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. Elizabeth earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Wellesley College in May 2016 prior to attending the ABSN program at Emory. Clinical rotations at the Emory Rehabilitation Hospital; the Long Term Acute Care Unit at WellStar Windy Hill Hospital; and the Coronary Care Unit at Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital grew Elizabeth’s passion for facilitating communication around end-of-life decision making and improving psychosocial outcomes for bereaved family members. In fall of 2016, Elizabeth began working as a research assistant with Dr. Mi-Kyung Song to develop an advance care planning outcome measure for patients with advanced chronic kidney disease, heart failure, and lung cancer as well as their surrogate decision-makers. Elizabeth is currently working as a graduate research assistant under the mentorship of Dr. Kenneth Hepburn, principal investigator of an NIA/NIH funded randomized control trial of Tele-Savvy, an online psychoeducation program for informal caregivers of persons living with dementia. Elizabeth’s current plan of research focuses on the decision making processes of persons living with dementia and their family caregivers. Elizabeth will be testing prospect theory, a behavioral economic theory that describes how individuals make decisions under risk. Understanding how persons with dementia make decisions across the disease trajectory, Elizabeth hopes to enable more productive conversations around advance care planning. In addition, she will be obtaining her nurse practitioner’s license in Adult/Gerontology Primary Care to help bridge the research-practice gap in palliative care.

Major Amber Birkle, U.S. Army, earned a BSN from Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin in 2006 and subsequently commissioned into the Army Nurse Corps. In 2016, she completed an MSN with an emphasis in Nursing Leadership and Health Systems Management from Drexel University. In 2020, she graduated with a DNP as a Family and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner from the Uniformed Services University. Major Birkle has spent much of her career assigned to clinical and leadership positions at the Army community hospitals at Fort Wainwright, Alaska; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and Fort Irwin, California where she served as an Emergency Room Nurse and in Primary Care administration leading Patient/Soldier Centered Medical Homes. In 2008-2009, she deployed to Baghdad, Iraq with the 10th Combat Support Hospital as an Emergency Nurse. Her clinical practice interests are diverse and include operational medicine, integrative medicine, women’s health, and wilderness medicine.