SON Announces Faculty Leadership Appointments The School of Nursing recently announced faculty leadership appointments for Susan Ciurzynski, PhD, RN-BC, PNP, VCE, FNAP, Tara Serwetnyk, MS, RN-BC, and Maria Quinones, PhD. Ciurzynski, a professor of clinical nursing, stepped down from her role as director of the Center for Lifelong Learning to assume a new leadership position with the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. She is now the assistant DNP program director and will assist Lydia D. Rotondo, DNP, RN, CNS, with her responsibilities as the program’s director. Serwetnyk, an SON teaching associate, takes over as interim director of the Center for Lifelong Learning. In her new role, she will facilitate strategic planning initiatives and support the ongoing advancement of educational programs. Quinones, an assistant professor of clinical nursing, has been named one of the school’s Faculty Diversity Officers and assistant director of the Elaine Hubbard Center for Aging.
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Quinones
Serwetnyk
Underhill-Blazey, Flanagan Join SON Faculty The UR School of Nursing added two new full-time faculty members in the 20192020 academic year. The school welcomed Meghan L. Underhill-Blazey, PhD, APRN, AOCNS, and Annmarie Flanagan, DNP, APN, FNP-C, to its faculty midway through the year and also added a new postdoctoral fellow in Yang Yu, PhDc, MPHc, MSN. Underhill-Blazey joins the School of Nursing as an assistant professor. She previously worked at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, where she acted as interim director and associate director for the Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research. Underhill-Blazey’s practice and research have primarily focused on promoting optimal health in individuals
living with increased risk for cancer. She has led multiple studies and co-authored over 25 peer-reviewed publications. In addition to her School of Nursing faculty role, Underhill-Blazey holds a secondary appointment as a nurse practitioner at the Wilmot Cancer Institute Hereditary Cancer Screening and Risk Reduction Program. Flanagan joined the School of Nursing in December 2019 as a full-time assistant professor of clinical nursing. She is working closely with primary care nurse practitioner students during their clinical placements in the community. A nursing professional for more than 35 years, Flanagan has worked in the public health and community health arenas and focused on the needs of individuals and families within rural America. Yu obtained her PhD and
MPH from the University of Pittsburgh where she received substantial training on weight management and behavior change theories and practices. Her current research focuses on disordered eating behaviors, such as loss of control eating and binge eating, in patients with severe obesity who are seeking or have undergone bariatric surgery. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases and American Journal of Health Behavior. The school also announced that Chen Zhang, PhD, MPH, successfully completed her postdoctoral fellowship and accepted an offer to join the tenure track faculty as an assistant professor.
Underhill-Blazey
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Yu
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