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For the Common Good A new nursing and health research framework at Boston College
From the dean Dear friends and colleagues, As I sit to write this letter, I can’t help but think of all the talented leaders, researchers, and educators across our community—each of you making vital contributions to nursing and health care. This issue of Voice captures the transformative power of our collective work through stories that demonstrate how we’re expanding access, advancing knowledge, and strengthening our profession.
dean Katherine E. Gregory
editors Sara Shay Kathleen Sullivan
managing editor Tracy Bienen
art director Christine Hunt
graphic design Heejung Koh
In these pages, you’ll learn about our new Research for the Common Good framework, which defines how CSON faculty are advancing nursing science across six interconnected hubs—from genomics to healthy aging, from mental health to global public health. You’ll discover how our partnership with Messina College is creating pathways for first-generation students to pursue nursing careers. And you’ll meet our newest faculty members, who bring expertise in areas ranging from pediatric palliative care to psychiatric nursing, strengthening our capacity to educate the next generation while advancing critical research. These stories reflect nursing at its best: rigorous in scholarship, compassionate in practice, and unwavering in its commitment to serving others. Whether creating new educational pathways, conducting groundbreaking research, or welcoming new voices to our community, we remain guided by the principle that excellence in education fosters lasting impact throughout our communities and beyond. Thank you for being part of our community and for your continued support of our mission. The work we do together— educating nurses, advancing science, and improving health—has never been more vital. Sincerely,
katherine e. gregory Dean
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contributors Kara Baskin Adam Conner-Simons Steven Constantine Tim Gower Ellen Seaward Kathleen Sullivan
photographers Caitlin Cunningham Lee Pellegrini
CSON and the broader Boston College community mourn the passing of Lee Pellegrini, our longtime director of photography and frequent contributor to Voice, who died in August.
Voice is published by the William F. Connell School of Nursing and the Boston College Office of University Communications. Address letters and comments to: csonalum@bc.edu Associate Director, Marketing and Communications William F. Connell School of Nursing Maloney Hall 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Baccalaureate and direct entry master’s degree programs have full approval by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing. CCNE Accredited 2018–2028
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Research for the Common Good
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Fall 2025 news
2 Alumna named president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Six alumni inducted into the American Academy of Nursing. Students awarded scholarships from National Black Nurses Association, Nurses Educational Funds, and U.S. State Department.
Features
4 Research for the Common Good A new framework connects the Connell School’s core areas of expertise and organizes scientific inquiry into six interconnected hubs.
IMAGE CREDITS Cover: Heejung Koh, Christine Hunt, istock/DrAfter123
Left: Caitlin Cunningham Above, clockwise from left: Photo courtesy Oumou Diallo, graphic by Monica De Salvo, graphic by Christine Hunt, istock/Effi, photo by Caroline Alden
achievements
8 A Bridge to Opportunity Boston College’s Messina College and CSON partner to unlock health care careers for first-generation college students.
14 Welcoming New Faculty The Connell School welcomes scholar-educators whose work touches on psychiatry, acute care, fatigue, and family grief.
16 In the Journals Summaries of select faculty research published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, PLOS Global Public Health, and Violence Against Women.
17 At the Lectern Roundups of faculty research presented for the Department of Nursing at Penn Medicine conference, International Nursing Research Congress, and Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers annual meeting.
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news Faculty
Students and Alumni
Professor Ann Burgess was featured in a May interview on WBZ-TV/CBS Boston on the three-part Hulu documentary on her life and work as a psychiatric nurse pioneer. The Hulu series, Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer, was nominated for an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary.
Ph.D. candidate Nickie Burney was awarded an Abbott Scholarship from the National Black Nurses Association.
Expert Witness: The Weight of Our Testimony When Justice Hangs in the Balance, by Professor Ann Burgess and Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Steven Constantine, delves into Burgess’s role as a trauma expert in some of the biggest criminal court cases in the last 30 years. Burgess was also included in a CNN piece on women who seek to understand those who kill. And at CrimeCon in Denver, she shared the stage with legendary hip-hop artist Ice T.
Oumou Diallo ’26 was awarded a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship from the U.S. State Department, which provided her the opportunity to study at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates last spring.
Nationally recognized nurse practitioner, educator, and health policy advocate Valerie Fuller ’91, M.S. ’98, was named president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners in June.
The American Academy of Nursing (AAN) selected six outstanding Connell School alumni as fellows of the academy this fall. Recognized for their substantial contributions to health and health care are: • Lisa Duffy, M.S. ’02, Ph.D. ’13—joint associate professor, UMass Amherst Elaine Marieb College of Nursing and the Institute for Applied Life Sciences • Valerie Fuller ’91, M.S. ’98—president, American Association of Nurse Practitioners
Associate Professor Andrew Dwyer co-organized the May 2025 Hamilton Symposium, which was themed Rare Diseases from Mechanism, to Molecules, to Market. Professor Emerita Elizabeth Howard, CSON’s program evaluation and accreditation officer, is an on-site evaluator for the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Assistant Professor Victor Petreca wrote about why violent acts are often blamed on mental illness in TIME magazine and about the new role that psychiatric diagnosis has taken on in public life in the Boston Globe Ideas section.
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• Patricia Lawrence, M.S. ’92—assistant professor and director of Project Healthy Grandparents at Georgia State University School of Public Health • Kristen Sethares, Ph.D. ’03—professor, UMass Dartmouth College of Nursing and Health Sciences • Cathy St. Pierre, Ph.D. ’95—nurse researcher, VA Bedford Healthcare System • John Welch, M.S. ’12—senior director of clinical systems, Partners in Health; senior nurse anesthetist, cardiac anesthesia, Boston Children’s Hospital; director of Nurse Anesthesia DNP Track, The Ohio State University College of Nursing
Research The Connell School awarded the following faculty with CSON Innovation Grants: • Assistant Professor Soojung Ahn for her project Exploring Self-care Behaviors in Heart Failure Caregivers with Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Pilot Mixed-Methods Study • Associate Professor of the Practice Thamarah Crevecoeur for her Pilot Study to Examine Implementation of a Multidisciplinary Model of Group Prenatal Care Tailored for the Haitian Immigrant Community in Boston
Assistant Professor Patricia Underwood presented a talk on cognitive decline and diabetes in older adults at the American Association of Nurse Practitioners conference in June. She was also interviewed for the news syndicate HealthDay. Assistant Professor Melissa Uveges was awarded a grant from the American Heart Association to support her project studying the screening of pediatric patients for a genetic condition that causes “bad cholesterol.” Faculty member Brittney van de Water was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor. She gave the tenure talk “From Research to Impact: Utilizing Implementation Science in Global Nursing” in May.
• Associate Professor Anna Klarare for her project Simulation to Promote Clinical Reasoning and to Operationalize Equitable Person-Centered Care in Undergraduate Nursing Students • Associate Professor Brittney van de Water for her project Feasibility of the Pediatric Observational Study to Understand Post-TB Treatment Completion, Morbidity, Environmental, and Spatial Links
Two Ph.D. students were awarded Nurses Educational Funds scholarships for the 2025– 2026 academic year. Alyssa Creonte, who is studying loneliness among older adults and older adult informal caregivers, received the Evelyn J. Barclay Scholarship. Jacqueline Massaro, who is researching equitable pressure injury prevention in acute care settings, is the inaugural recipient of the Maxine E. Elkan Scholarship.
Event Holly Powell Kennedy was the Dr. Maureen P. McCausland Pinnacle Keynote Speaker for the fall Pinnacle lecture, “Meeting the Moment: Delivering Excellence in an Era of Health Care Scarcity.” Kennedy is the Helen Varney Professor of Midwifery Emerita at the Yale University School of Nursing.
Ph.D. student Nicholas Raposo’s paper “Nurses’ Role in the Birth Experience: An Integrative Review,” which he co-authored with Professor Corrine Jurgens, was voted the 2025 Scholarly Review Article of the Year from MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing.
photo credits (clockwise from left): Courtesy: Steven Constantine, American Association of Nurse Practitioners, Oumou Diallo; Photo by: Sophie Smith; Photo courtesy: Nicholas Raposo
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FOR THE COMMON GOOD A New Framework for Research at CSON By tim gower
When Diana Bowser arrived at the Connell School of Nursing (CSON) as associate dean for research and integrated science in 2023, she set out to develop a framework for scientific inquiry to take the school into the future. As part of this initiative, Bowser held several forums and meetings, where she asked faculty questions including how they define nursing research. “Everyone kept repeating this phrase: We do research for the common good,” she says. Throughout history, philosophers and theologians have offered varying explanations of “the common good.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls it “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.”
illustration: Heejung Koh, Christine Hunt, istock/DrAfter123 photo credits (opposite, from left): Caitlin Cunningham, Lee Pellegrini
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“Each researcher at CSON is turning their discoveries into solutions to improve health care services for the common good.” —Diana Bowser Bowser has asked CSON scientists to describe how they view the concept. “Everyone defines it differently,” she says. “But I think that’s the point. Each researcher at CSON is turning their discoveries— whether they’re focused on diabetes, heart disease, mental health, or any other condition—into solutions to improve health care services for the common good.” Those sentiments inspired the name of the new framework: Research for the Common Good: Discovery and Implementation of Nursing Science and Public Health. CSON faculty helped identify the half-dozen essential (and often connected) areas of expertise, or hubs as Bowser calls them, within that framework. Voice spoke with six CSON researchers about how their work fits into their own specific hub and how it relates to the others as they pursue healthier lives for all.
PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH SYSTEMS “Public health and the common good are really one,” says Associate Professor Katelyn Sileo of CSON’s Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good. “A key goal of public health research is to create policies and programs that put the wellness and health of the community first.” That includes the global community. Sileo’s research has taken her to Uganda, a country with high unintended pregnancies and related maternal mortality. She developed an intervention to address these issues through the promotion of family planning. Through a program called Family Health= Family Wealth, she says, “we’re trying to break down the barriers to planning and spacing pregnancies,
such as challenging men’s perception that having many children is a sign of masculinity.” The intervention increased contraceptive use among women who wanted to prevent pregnancy. That pilot study is now being tested in a larger group. Sileo notes that because preventive medicine is at the core of public health, this pillar of the Research for the Common Good framework overlaps with several others. “For example, prevention is a key aspect of chronic disease and women and children’s health,” she says, “so they naturally intersect with public health approaches.”
GENOMICS AND METABOLIC HEALTH The era of genomic medicine that began with the sequencing of the human genome in 2003 has enabled the development of precision therapies—treatments tailored to an individual’s genetic makeup. Yet most nurses receive little education about genomics, says Associate Professor Andrew Dwyer. His Macy Faculty Scholar project developed and tested first-of-itskind simulations to help nurse practitioner students develop genomic nursing competencies and build confidence in applying genomic knowledge in their practices. Dwyer and Assistant Professor Melissa Uveges are part of an international team that created the ACCESS framework to integrate genomics across the continuum of nursing care. Dwyer is currently working with nursing leaders to establish a consensus statement on genomic content for nursing curricula so schools lacking genomics expertise can still incorporate content into the curriculum. “The goal isn’t for this knowledge to remain at BC, but to be the tide that raises all boats and increases access and health equity,” says Dwyer. boston college william f. connell school of nursing
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HEALTHY AGING By 2034, Americans over 65 will outnumber children under 18 for the first time, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Professor Karen Lyons, a gerontologist, notes that while medical advances have increased life expectancy, many people may live longer with chronic diseases that require care. “Increased longevity is exciting,” says Lyons, “but it also poses huge challenges for our health care systems, for society, and for our families.” Lyons’s research focuses on enhancing the well-being of people in family care dyads, which are made up of a person with a chronic illness and a close family member, such as a spouse or an adult child, who acts as caregiver. She has shown that improving communication and collaboration within a dyad that includes a person living with heart failure results in better physical and mental health for both patient and caregiver, and she’s studying similar interventions for dyads that include people with dementia and people with cancer.
WOMEN AND CHILDREN’S HEALTH CSON’s launch of a master’s program in nurse-midwifery this year underscores the school’s commitment to maternal health care and research, says Bowser. That commitment crosses international borders, notes Brittney van de Water, an associate professor and pediatric nurse practitioner who studies global health delivery. More than 90 percent of all maternal deaths occur in low-income countries, according to the World Health Organization, while sub-Saharan Africa has the highest neonatal mortality rate in the world. “A lot of these deaths are preventable,” says van de Water. “We know how to fix a lot of the problems that are causing them.” But implementing evidence-based prevention strategies is often a challenge, she says. She is conducting a two-year study of children in South Africa who have been treated for tuberculosis (TB) to understand the long-term effects on their lung function and quality of life. Her team is tracking pediatric TB survivors to determine if exposure to certain volatile organic compounds causes relapses.
“BC has a really rich, long history of aging-related research,” says Lyons. “We have a collaborative, innovative team of researchers that is laser-focused on addressing the holistic needs of older adults as they age.”
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CHRONIC DISEASE More than half of all Americans have two or more chronic diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so learning how to curb and manage those conditions is a foundational aspect of nursing education and research, says Associate Professor Tam Nguyen. “It underscores the question of how we help individuals make healthier choices,” says Nguyen, who has focused on finding ways to slow fast-rising rates of type 2 diabetes (T2D) among Asian Americans. In summer 2025, she launched the Asian Diabetes Wellness Collective, a resource-rich web portal with culturally adapted information (in English, Chinese, and Vietnamese) about preventing and managing T2D through lifestyle changes. Nguyen notes that critical research on chronic disease prevention and management across CSON connects many hubs within the new research framework. By working with campus groups outside CSON—such as the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society and Design Commons (a Provost Office collective integrating design-driven approaches with interdisciplinary problem-solving)— Nguyen says that faculty and students alike can pursue new directions in scientific inquiry. “There are many opportunities here at BC to work creatively across disciplines,” she adds, “and do research for the common good.”
“We must think outside of our silos and be interdisciplinary. That’s how we’re going to solve the problems of the future.” —victor petreca
PSYCHIATRIC AND MENTAL HEALTH Boston College’s emphasis on cura personalis—care for the whole person, including the psyche—was important to Assistant Professor Victor Petreca, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, when he came to CSON in 2018. Much of his research focuses on victims and perpetrators of violence and crime. In a recent study of 200 cases of strangulation, Petreca identified the methods and motives of four distinct types of perpetrators. In other research, he has examined violence against Indigenous women and the long-term effects of male sexual trauma. “The goal is to prevent victimization, but also to try to identify those who are at risk of perpetrating violence and figuring out if we can push the brakes on that train,” says Petreca. The core of his research is crisis intervention and jail diversion, and he leads a center that studies how to improve policing and promote mental health. Petreca also collaborates with Professor Ann Burgess, whose groundbreaking research influenced how law enforcement investigates serial killers. He stresses that there’s a mental health component throughout the scholarship represented by the pillars of CSON’s new research framework, such as healthy aging, chronic disease, and women and children’s health. “If you’re interested in looking at people fully, you should come to Connell,” says Petreca. Petreca and his investigator colleagues at CSON each have specialized areas of focus that don’t always fit neatly into a single hub, which Bowser says is a strength of the Research for the Common Good framework. “In order to do research for the common good, we must think outside of our silos and be interdisciplinary. That’s how we’re going to solve the problems of the future.” ▪
illustration: Heejung Koh, Monica DeSalvo photo credits (from left): Peter Julian, Sophie Smith, Caitlin Cunningham, Lee Pellegrini
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A BRIDGE TO OPPORTUNITY With a new partnership, Messina College and CSON unlock health care careers for first-generation college students. By kara baskin
illustration: Christine Hunt, istock/Effi photo credits: Tony Rinaldo
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As Jaaliyah Rodriguez entered her senior year at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Mass., she wasn’t sure if she could attend college. She had a lot on her plate already. Two years earlier, her mom had been hospitalized with Crohn’s disease. At home, it was Rodriguez who changed her colostomy bag and interacted with a team of travel nurses. As she balanced school with caretaking, she dreamed of becoming a gastrointestinal nurse herself. “I wanted to give back to the people who gave to my mom,” she says.
Unlocking a world of possibility Rodriguez contemplated taking a gap year, then enrolling in college courses close to home. But when Boston College undergraduate admissions counselor Owen Grover visited Central Catholic to spotlight the new Messina College, she saw another path forward. Messina offers a two-year associate’s degree program housed on BC’s Brookline Campus, formerly Pine Manor College. Launched in 2024, students have all the advantages of BC in a small, supportive setting. Unlike other associate’s degree programs, Messina is residential, and students can track directly into BC or another institution for a bachelor’s degree after graduation. The school enrolls 100 first-generation, high-financial-need students each year. At Messina, students choose from four pathways: applied data science, applied psychology and human development, business, or health sciences. Each major has a collaborating BC school; each class requires BC’s high level of scholarship.
Jaaliyah Rodriguez
Rodriguez recognized herself in Grover’s description of the ideal Messina student: motivated and persistent, with opportunity gaps that might make a college education seem unattainable. “He explained how Messina is a two-year program for students who might not have the chance to show their full potential due to life circumstances,” she says. “I thought that it sounded like an awesome opportunity—a way for me to get into a school that could help my future.”
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Rodriguez joined the inaugural class in 2024 and today she is in her second year in Messina’s health sciences program, where students can opt to focus either on nursing or public health. Her curriculum is designed by faculty from the Connell School of Nursing (CSON), and the core curriculum is identical to that of her fellow nursing undergraduates in BC’s four-year program. “We’re leveraging the opportunity with one of the best undergraduate nursing programs in the country, ensuring that there’s direct alignment for students who want to pursue a health care career,” says says Erick Berrelleza, S.J., the Patti and Jonathan Kraft Family Dean of Messina College. Erick Berrelleza, S.J.
Two campuses, one mission The Messina mission harkens back to BC’s 19th-century origins as a college that welcomed Irish immigrants when Ivy League institutions were beyond reach. For Fr. Berrelleza, it is also personal. The child of Mexican immigrants, he was once a first-generation college student too. He grasped the specific cultural, financial, and academic barriers that less-advantaged students might confront at an elite university, and he understood that Messina’s curriculum needed to combine academic rigor with strong social support. “When we thought about Messina’s mission—to serve first-generation students with high financial need—we designed a model that uniquely focuses on the students’ experience and provides the robust and holistic support that they need to succeed,” he explains. “In many ways, the mission at Messina is no different from the work that we do at the broader University: a transformative education that seeks to create citizens for the world who are aware of their gifts and where their contributions in the world might be.”
photo credits (clockwise from bottom left): Frank Curran, Lee Pellegrini, Tony Rinaldo, Caitlin Cunningham (center and bottom)
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Genevieve Green makes that mission come alive as Messina’s associate director of student success. Coordinating with CSON and the other BC undergraduate schools, Green bridges the gap between Brookline and Chestnut Hill, overseeing Messina’s mentoring, academic support, and tutoring programs. The model encourages belonging: Messina students are scheduled into facilitated weekly group-study sessions with peer tutors. Counseling services are available for drop-ins, no appointments necessary. CSON’s Seacole Scholars, peer leaders from the Chestnut Hill Campus who are also first-generation students, visit Brookline to chat about navigating college life. If students choose to complete a bachelor’s degree at CSON after graduating from Messina, they are guaranteed campus housing.
Genevieve Green
“We create systems that are more seamless for our students, so they don’t have to hunt down the support they need,” Green says. “This is all heart here, across campuses. Everyone is excited about the opportunity to build something.” Rodriguez remembers feeling nervous stepping onto campus—and daunted by the 3.4 GPA necessary to enter BC as a junior. Before she came to Messina, she lacked academic role models; now she has several. She recalls the intensity of an anatomy class with Messina Assistant Professor of the Practice Antonio SerratoCapuchina, who is also a Messina academic advisor. He was committed to her success. “He wanted us to make sure that we knew we were supported. He didn’t just teach something and then move on. He gained personal connections with us, and he’s still someone we can talk to about anything that’s troubling us,” she says. “That’s really different from any high school or even college. I feel like, in other colleges, it might be a bigger class, and you might get lost in the shuffle a little bit. Here, professors know you personally. This made it easier for me to be calm and know that, no matter what path I go through, I’ll succeed.”
Antonio Serrato-Capuchina (standing)
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Intellectual rigor and wraparound support Some of Rodriguez’s most memorable moments have unfolded in the classroom. In a writing seminar with Messina Associate Professor of the Practice Amy Alvarez, she felt she could open up about her past, and she felt she was seen holistically, in true BC tradition. “She connects with you. She reads your writing, and she makes sure that you feel validated,” Rodriguez says. “I was writing about Central Catholic and private schools, where I felt like I didn’t fit in as well as I could have. I never felt judged. She validated my feelings, although not everyone might understand them.” At Messina, the academics, small class sizes, and faculty mentorship are identical to the student experience in Chestnut Hill. Green works closely with Colleen Simonelli, CSON’s associate dean for student services and professor of the practice, to keep connections between the two schools strong.
Amy Alvarez (center)
“I’m really keen to make sure that the students feel very much a part of the community and that sense of belonging that we really pride ourselves on in the School of Nursing,” Simonelli says. “Messina College is providing an additional avenue to increase the health care workforce with a strong Jesuit foundation in the liberal arts and the rigor of the Connell School curriculum.” To that end, second-year Messina students take classes such as pharmacology and nutrition alongside their CSON nursing classmates and complete clinicals alongside their peers during their sophomore spring semester. Some classes, however, are intentionally spread out. For example, because chemistry and anatomy are both taxing courses, Messina students take one during the school year and another over the summer, a thoughtful design tweak that boosts confidence.
Colleen Simonelli (left) photo credits (clockwise from bottom left): Yoon Byun, Caitlin Cunningham, Tony Rinaldo, Frank Curran
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“ “Their success in chemistry provides them with the confidence to perform better in anatomy. Helping them build the self-efficacy to succeed is incredibly valuable. The students say, ‘OK, I can handle this,’” Simonelli says.
Transforming the health care landscape After Messina, students are uniquely positioned to help alleviate the shortage of U.S. health care professionals and reduce the burden on the U.S. health care system. To that end, they can complete a bachelor’s degree at Boston College or transfer to a school with a BC partnership agreement, such as Regis College, University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Albertus Magnus College, among others. Or they can begin a career as an emergency room technician or as a nursing, medical, or patient care assistant.
We’re leveraging the opportunity with one of the best undergraduate nursing programs in the country, ensuring that there’s direct alignment for students who want to pursue a health care career. erick berrelleza, s.j., kraft family dean messina college
“Regardless of pathway, these students will care for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and do it with a unique cultural competency and humility,” Green says. “And they deserve this opportunity. They’ve earned it.” Rodriguez is now on her way to earning a nursing degree, and she’s eager to share Messina’s mission with students back home in Lawrence, where she was once uncertain if she’d ever attend college. “I wish people knew how unique an opportunity and a community this is. When you come to a place like Messina, you have a family, even if you don’t know everyone,” she says. “People genuinely care about you. They want to see you succeed. Messina is about people, connections, personal relationships, and joy. Everyone here has a passion for helping students, and you see that every day.” ▪
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BC’s Newest Nursing Faculty CSON welcomes scholar-educators whose work touches on psychiatry, acute care, fatigue, and family grief. This year, four faculty with a wide range of expertise joined the team at the Connell School. These new community members bring a depth of experience in acute and psychiatric nursing, pediatric palliative care, and addressing fatigue in individuals with heart failure. By Adam Conner-Simons
Elizabeth Broden Arciprete Assistant Professor, Nursing
Ceara Conley Assistant Professor of the Practice, Nursing
Focus Nurse-led approaches to family grief in pediatric palliative care
Education
Focus Acute care nursing and family nurse practitioner
M.H.S., Yale University Ph.D., nursing, University of Pennsylvania M.S., University of Pennsylvania B.S., nursing, University of Pennsylvania
Education
Previous position
Assistant Professor, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Clinical Instructor, Boston College
Postdoctoral Fellow, National Clinician Scholars Program, Yale School of Medicine
What brought you to CSON? “The values here brought me. The opportunity to collaborate with students, faculty, and staff committed to a holistic, person- and justice-centered education is unparalleled within CSON and BC as a whole.”
What motivates your research? “Nurses are present with families during some of the most intensely difficult and joyful moments during a child’s serious illness or injury. However, for nurses to attend to the full spectrum of suffering, grief, and meaning that arises moment to moment during pediatric serious illness, we need readily applicable and adaptive tools. I worked with parents and health care providers to develop a handoff template that helps nurses communicate the child’s story and the family’s needs to the incoming shift. The next step is designing, testing, and implementing tools like this in partnership with bedside clinicians, nurses, and families.”
D.N.P., family nursing practice, Boston College B.S., nursing, University of Pittsburgh
Previous positions
What brought you to CSON? “As a BC nursing grad, I have personally experienced CSON’s commitment to fostering an environment where students can grow and make an impact in the world. During my time volunteering with CSON’s health service trip to Jamaica and as a clinical instructor, I watched BC nurses make a difference at home and abroad, and I am excited to continue to be a part of this community.”
What motivates your teaching? “Nursing is more than mastering technical skills. I am dedicated to supporting the next generation of BC nurses as they learn to practice with a holistic, person-first approach to better serve their communities.”
Teaching Adult Health Nursing Theory Adult Health Nursing Clinical
Teaching Child Health Theory
photo credits: Caroline Alden
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Noelle Pavlovic Assistant Professor, Nursing
Danielle Walker
Focus
Assistant Professor of the Practice, Nursing
Fatigue symptoms in individuals at risk for and living with heart failure
Education Ph.D., nursing, Johns Hopkins University M.S., nursing, Johns Hopkins University M.S., microbiology and immunology, Georgetown University B.A., biology, Oberlin College
Previous position
Focus Psychiatric nursing practice
Education Ph.D., nursing, Boston College M.S., nursing, Boston College B.S., nursing, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Postdoctoral Fellow, Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Previous position
What brought you to CSON?
What brought you to CSON?
“I was first drawn to the faculty expertise in my area of research. But I was then really taken by CSON’s innovative mentorship structure that ensures faculty are well rounded in both teaching and scholarship. That aspect felt so purposeful and really ref lected a deep dedication to the well-being of the student body and a desire to cultivate an encouraging, welcoming culture. The excitement about education here is so genuine and affirming.”
“As a graduate of BC, I knew the quality nursing education that is received here, and I wanted to be part of this community. The school’s commitment to social justice aligns strongly with my own priorities and values as a professor.”
What motivates your teaching? “Fatigue is one of the most common and distressing symptoms for those living with heart failure and can significantly impact quality of life. It’s a difficult symptom to address because it can have many underlying causes and often persists even after treatment. Symptoms like fatigue are central to the lived experience of acute and chronic disease. I believe that by better understanding and treating such symptoms, we can alleviate significant suffering and allow individuals living with heart failure to more fully and meaningfully engage in their lives.”
Instructor, MGH Institute of Health Professions
What motivates your research and teaching? “My goal is to make learning enjoyable. In the classroom I strive to use various methods of teaching to keep students engaged and connect theory to real-world clinical practice. Actively working in the field of mental health, I am able to bring to life the concepts I teach.”
Teaching Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Theory Clinical Coordinator for Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing
Teaching Nursing Assessment of Health Adult Health Nursing Clinical
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scholarly output Summaries of notable articles and talks By ellen seaward In the Journals
Mitigating Fraud While Ensuring Equity in Online Qualitative Studies Using social media and websites like Craigslist can be a costeffective way to recruit participants from hard-to-reach groups for qualitative research studies. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, fraudulent participants targeting research incentives in online health studies have become more prevalent. In an article recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, Assistant Professor Eunji Cho, Assistant Professor Elizabeth Broden Arciprete, and a colleague describe challenges and red flags researchers encounter when seeking participants, and they suggest proactive strategies for each phase of the qualitative research process that can help prevent fraudulent participation. These include security strategies, like using CAPTCHA to counter bots, and strategies that speak to human needs, such as preparing teams emotionally so that they can assess participant authenticity without bias or hostility. “Because no single method offers complete protection, researchers must adopt flexible, multifaceted strategies grounded in ethical principles, institutional support, and meaningful collaboration with participants and communities,” Cho, Broden Arciprete, and their co-researcher write. They also advocate for standardized protocols, clear reporting guidelines, and a culture that values transparency, shared learning, and coordinated action.
Understanding Associations between Violence and Distress in Women Experiencing Homelessness The World Health Organization categorizes violence against women as both a public health concern and a violation of human rights (WHO, 2013, 2021). However, violence against women experiencing homelessness—who are particularly vulnerable to the psychological impacts of violence—has not been sufficiently explored, according to Associate Professor Anna Klarare. To address research gaps in examining the association between psychological distress and different forms of violence, including emotional, physical, and sexual, among women experiencing homelessness, she and her co-researchers surveyed 41 Swedish women experiencing homelessness using a cross-sectional survey design, and analyzed the quantitative data collected through standardized questionnaires, including the Swedish version of the
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voice | fall 2025
General Health Questionnaire 12 (GHQ-12) and the seven-item Questions about Violence (QAV) questionnaire. In a study published in Violence Against Women, Klarare and her team found that 85% of survey respondents had experienced violence from someone close to them, and 41.5% showed clinical signs of anxiety or depression. Emotional, physical, and sexual violence, especially when perpetrated by someone close, were each independently associated with higher distress levels. Their findings underscore the need for a holistic approach to trauma-informed care that recognizes the cumulative impact of violence on mental health and prioritizes listening to women’s experiences.
Testing Gender-Sensitive Training for HIV Care Providers in Uganda Gender norms in sub-Saharan Africa drive the HIV epidemic by limiting women’s autonomy in HIV prevention and treatment decision-making and reducing men’s engagement in care. To improve HIV care in the region, Associate Professor of Global Public Health Katelyn Sileo developed and pilot-tested a gender-sensitivity training program for 144 HIV care providers and clinic staff in central Uganda using quantitative and qualitative methods. The program included four training sessions conducted in Luganda (the local language) inclusive of education, role-plays, and interactive discussions. Session 1 introduced gender and its role in HIV. Session 2 introduced bias, stereotypes, and patient-centered communication techniques. Session 3 provided training on gender-based violence screening, referrals, and counseling. Session 4 served as a refresher course. The researchers measured change in relevant outcomes by assessing participants before the intervention and at six- and 12-month follow-ups, comparing them to a control group. In addition, participants took part in exit focus group discussions, which were coded to identify key themes, including competence in gender-sensitive HIV care, client-centered care, bias recognition, and translation of the training’s effect on outcomes. As reported in PLOS Global Public Health, the researchers analyzed and compared the quantitative and qualitative data, finding they supported each other. Ultimately, the pilot study showed promise in improving provider attitudes and behaviors regarding gender sensitivity, demonstrating the need for a larger, more comprehensive trial.
Full list of faculty output
At the Lectern
NP Anchors: A Sustainable Solution to the Nursing Shortage At South Boston Community Health Center, three significant issues are complicating the retention and recruitment of nurses and the hiring of new nurse practitioners (NPs): community health center offer packages; a decrease in primary care RN applicants driven by the national nursing shortage; and inconsistent experience levels among new nurse practitioners. To address these challenges, Assistant Professor Alison Marshall developed a postgraduate training program centered around a new hybrid health care role she helped create: the nurse practitioner anchor. At the annual meeting of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers this spring, Marshall described her goal: to fill openings left empty by the drop in RN primary care applicants with new NPs seeking more advanced practice nursing training. NP anchors, Marshall explained, are able to bill for services as NPs while assisting the nursing pool by doing work typically delegated to RNs, such as wound care and blood pressure checks. Over one to three years, they gradually add on precepted clinical sessions and direct patient care NP work until they are prepared for primary care provider roles at South Boston CHC or elsewhere. New NPs see the NP Anchor Program as a desirable training residency, which has helped the health center attract NPs, fill RN work, and decrease turnover, said Marshall. The program has also increased new patient access to South Boston CHC, with RNs and NPs using their full scope of practice.
Engaging with Everyday Ethics and Ethical Awareness in Nursing A woman asks to spend the night in her husband’s neurological ICU room, worried he will become distressed if she leaves. Citing ICU policy, the nurse does not allow the woman to stay. That night, her husband becomes acutely agitated and needs to be sedated and restrained. Associate Professor of the Practice Aimee Milliken used the above case example to illustrate that all nursing actions have ethical implications in her Nurses Week keynote speech, “Cultivating Ethical Awareness in Nursing Practice,” at the spring 2025 Department of Nursing at Penn Medicine conference. She defined moral distress among nursing professionals, which can arise in scenarios such as the one in the example, and offered solutions to
address it. Milliken explained that unlike psychological stress, which typically does not violate core values and duties, moral distress occurs when a person feels pressure to act unethically or not to act when an action is needed. This often results in anger, exhaustion, and frustration. Instead of being considered an individual issue, moral distress should be reframed as an occupational hazard, Milliken said. She advocated for upstream changes to policies and training that recognize ethical obligations at all levels of health care, the building of moral communities that offer mutual support and open discussion of ethical issues, and preventive ethics: a proactive approach to addressing and identifying triggers of ethical conflict.
Using Implementation Science Methods to Examine a Novel Preceptor Program in Malawi After she implemented a new pediatric critical care preceptor program in Malawi, Associate Professor Brittney van de Water wanted to examine what helped and hindered it using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), a tool that provides a structure for assessing new interventions across five domains: innovation (the characteristics of the intervention being implemented), outer setting (broader context outside the organization), inner setting (the environment where the implementation is taking place), individuals (staff or patients), and process (methods and activities used to implement the intervention). At the 36th International Nursing Research Congress in July, van de Water gave a talk about her experience using CFIR to analyze the Malawi program and the facilitators and barriers it exposed. Understanding multiple perspectives about what does and does not work is critical to scaling up or scaling out preceptor programs, she said, so as part of their CFIR analysis, van de Water and her team interviewed 20 participants and stakeholders. Ultimately, they identified areas that could be improved, such as time constraints and heavy workloads. They also found that the Malawi program had significant strengths across all CFIR domains—in particular, the program’s low-dose, high-frequency model was successful in this setting, and there was enthusiasm among participants for it to expand within and beyond Malawi. The study was recently published in Nursing Open with co-authors that included Olivia Yang ’24 and Ijaabo Ali ’24.
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