During its more than 130-year history, the School of Nursing has been a driving force in advancing the science of nursing through innovative research, practical learning, and an unwavering commitment to the community. Today, it is one of the premier nursing schools in the country.
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Laura Allen, MA, MS, RN
Community and Public Health Nursing
Laura Allen oversees the Community and Public Health Environmental Initiative (CPHEI), a collaborative effort with the Maryland Family Network that provides health and environmental oversight for children from birth through age 5 and their families who are served by Baltimore City Early Head Start (EHS) and Head Start (HS) centers. Each semester, more than 25 students from the School of Nursing’s (SON) Bachelor of Science in Nursing, RN-to-BSN, entry Master of Science in Nursing, and Community/Public Health Nursing master’s specialty programs participate in CPHEI under her guidance. Allen also leads CPHEI’s growth, including overseeing the facilitation of health screenings and well-child exams for children in EHS and HS centers by SON advanced practice nursing students and clinical faculty. She is a governor-appointed board member of Maryland's Children's Environmental Health and Protection Advisory Council.
Susan L. Bindon, DNP, RN, NPD-BC, CNE, CNE-cl, FAAN
Developing Nurse Educators
Dr. Bindon has special interest and expertise in teaching, learning, and developing nurse educators in academic and practice settings. She has an ability to translate complex concepts and convey them in a meaningful and accessible way. She leads a statewide grant to prepare new and novice clinical nursing faculty — an urgent need as the nursing faculty shortage intensifies. She directs the School of Nursing Institute for Educators and its graduate teaching certificate program and mentors other faculty in her role as associate dean. She is immediate past-president of the Association for Nursing Professional Development and served as editor of the Journal for Nurses in Professional Development. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and was awarded the University System of Maryland Board of Regents award for teaching excellence. She maintains a faculty practice as an education consultant in the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Office of Clinical Practice and Professional Development.
Luana Colloca, MD, PhD, MS
Pain Research
Pain Modulation
Over the last few decades, Dr. Colloca has conducted studies on the behavioral, neural, and pharmacological mechanisms of pain modulation related to placebo and nocebo effects. Her lab has also developed an interest in virtual reality as a non-pharmacological approach to relieve pain and other symptoms. She has published in top-ranked international journals including Biological Psychiatry, Pain, Nature Neuroscience, JAMA, Lancet Neurology, Science and NEJM. As a result, Dr. Colloca has developed an international reputation as a leading scientist in advancing knowledge of the neurobiological mechanisms of descending pain modulation and placebo and nocebo effects with an integrative approach that includes psychopharmacological, neurobiological, and behavioral approaches.
Yvette Conyers, DNP, MS, RN, FNP-C, CTN-B, CFCN, CFCS, CNE
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Social Determinants of Health and Health Equity
Dr. Conyers is the associate dean for equity, diversity, and inclusion and an assistant professor, teaching excellence tenure track, at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. In this role, Conyers serves as the primary advisor to UMSON’s dean, senior academic leadership team, senior administrative team, and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Council on operational and strategic goals related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Amy L. Daniels, PhD, RN, CHSE-A
Simulation-Based Education in Health Care
Psychological Safety in Simulation
Simulation Program Leadership and Management
Dr. Daniels serves as the director of the Debra L. Spunt Clinical Simulation Labs, a Society for Simulation in Healthcare-Accredited site for Teaching and Learning. As an assistant professor, she provides simulation-based education in all clinical programs. Dr. Daniels has been a faculty member in the School of Nursing since 2012. In her role as simulation director, she is involved in curriculum integration, faculty development in simulation, debriefing, and psychological safety. Dr. Daniels is involved in simulation professional organizations and engaged in research around psychological safety. She has experience with simulation program growth and development as well as collaboration and consultation with external programs in both administrative and curricular areas. She has published in the areas of debriefing and psychological safety as well as integrating simulation-based education into curriculum.
Crystal DeVance-Wilson, PhD, MBA, PHCNS-BC
Nursing Workforce
Community/Public Health
Black Men's Health
Dr. DeVance-Wilson is a board-certified public health clinical nurse specialist with 30 years of experience working in acute and community settings with diverse populations. She is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, where she teaches in the graduate and undergraduate programs. Dr. DeVance-Wilson is the vice chair of the University of Maryland School of Nursing at the Universities at Shady Grove and also serves as the director of the Maryland Nursing Workforce Center, through which she and her team work to address issues affecting Maryland nurses, nursing students, schools of nursing, and health care organizations. Dr. DeVance-Wilson has also held leadership positions in several community organizations and is currently the immediate past chair of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Commission on Health.
Kelly Doran, PhD, RN, FAAN
Nurse-Led Interventions to Improve Social Needs and Health Disparities
Worksite Wellness
Cardiovascular Health
Dr. Doran runs the health suite at the UMB Community Engagement Center (CEC), which has been serving West Baltimore residents for two years. Dr. Doran and other School of Nursing faculty serve as clinical instructors and preceptors to graduate and undergraduate nursing students who are joined by medical, social work, and pharmacy students in the CEC’s health suite. Students gain community-based experience and opportunities to interact with neighbors outside the hospital. Dr. Doran’s expertise is in interprofessional education and nurse-run clinics to improve social determinants of health and health outcomes with underserved populations. Her research focuses on worksite wellness programs with health care workers to reduce work stress/burnout, health promotion interventions to improve cardiovascular health, and interventions to improve health outcomes.
Susan G. Dorsey, PhD, RN, FAAN
Chronic Pain
Pain Research
Genetics of Pain
Dr. Dorsey is a principal investigator for multiple NIH-funded R01 and R21 grants related to the development and persistence of chronic pain. Her group studies the molecular, cellular, and genetic factors associated with this and identifies biomarkers of the transition from acute to chronic pain in rodent and large animal models and in human participants. More people suffer from chronic pain than cancer, heart disease, and diabetes combined. Although people who suffer from chronic pain cost the United States more than $600 billion annually, there are few effective treatments that can reduce or eliminate chronic pain without significantly disrupting a person’s quality of life. Dr. Dorsey’s team seeks to solve this problem.
Lori A. Edwards, DrPH, BSN, RN, CNS-PCH, BC, FAAN
Public Health and Public Health Nursing
Social Determinants of Health and Health Equity
Community Engagment and Community-Based Participatory Research
Dr. Edwards is the associate dean for the Master of Science in Nursing program at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. She is also an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Health. She is a leader of University-wide community engagement initiatives and has extensive experience working in local and global communities. Her research has focused on community-based participatory and engagement efforts focused on occupational health with immigrant workers. She teaches courses on health equity and social determinants of health, program planning, and leadership. She has served as the president of national organizations and boards of community agencies. Dr. Edwards earned her BSN from University of Maryland School of Nursing and her MPH and DrPH degrees from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is board certified as a clinical specialist in public health nursing.
Elizabeth Galik, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, FAANP
Care of Individuals Living with Dementia
Dr. Galik is a nurse practitioner who specializes in improving care practices for older adults with dementia and their caregivers. Her externally funded research tests the impact of non-pharmacological interventions designed to optimize function and physical activity, improve mood, and manage behavioral symptoms among long-term care residents living with dementia. She also has expertise in the recruitment, retention, and measurement of cognitively impaired research participants, particularly involving the measurement of physical activity, using actigraphy. She has served as an expert advisor to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s national initiative to improve behavioral health and minimize the inappropriate use of antipsychotic medications among nursing home residents and hospitalized older adults with dementia.
Robyn Gilden, PhD, RN
Environmental Health
Climate Change
Dr. Gilden is an expert in pesticides and their health effects, including how seemingly safe household products can harm the immune, reproductive, and nervous systems. She is adept at translating scientific information into understandable language for health care providers and the public and in helping communities understand the health risks of contaminants in soil and water. Dr. Gilden is on the steering committee of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments and works to develop online resources that help nurses launch new studies in environmental health and create a network of nurse researchers, educators, and practitioners.
Shannon K. Idzik, DNP, CRNP, FAANP, FAAN
NP Scope of Practice
Endocrine and Diabetes Management
Dr. Idzik is an expert in nurse practitioner practice, education, and policy. She has led numerous legislative initiatives related to the full scope of practice and removing scope-of-practice barriers for nurse practitioners. She is a past president of the Nurse Practitioner Association of Maryland and has represented the profession as a member of the Chesapeake Regional Information System for Our Patients clinical advisory board. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Doctoral Nursing Practice. Dr. Idzik also is an expert in endocrine and more specifically diabetes management. She was elected to serve for the past three years on the National Clinical Care Commission, a federal advisory board that made recommendations to Congress on improving diabetes care in the United States. She has practiced in a variety of settings including endocrinology, bariatric surgery, primary care, and chronic disease management. She was awarded the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) State Award for Excellence in 2012 and was selected as a fellow of the AANP in 2014 and a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2017.
Eun-Shim Nahm, PhD, RN, FAAN, FGSA
Informatics
Care Coordination
Dr. Nahm’s research focuses on the use of technology-based interventions to engage patients, caregivers, and community-dwelling older adults in their care and to promote the management of chronic conditions. She has conducted numerous studies in the nursing informatics field, including qualitative, measurement, theory testing, usability studies, and longitudinal intervention trials. In her most recent R21 study, Dr. Nahm and her team investigated the effects of a theory-based patient portal e-learning program on selected health-related outcomes in older adults with chronic illnesses. She also leads online cancer survivorship studies in collaboration with oncologists and oncology nurses. Dr. Nahm has published more than 65 peer-reviewed journal articles and seven book chapters in her area
Yolanda Ogbolu, PhD, NNP, FNAP, FAAN
Health Equity
Social Determinants of Health
Social Isolation
Dean Ogbolu’s interprofessional and community-engaged research and scholarship teaching, and professional activities have focused on addressing health inequities and disparities in care locally and globally. Her projects have centered on strengthening nurses’ capacity to impact global health, improving the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate care in rural and urban hospitals, and addressing social isolation and social determinants of health in marginalized communities. Her international efforts have sought to improve nursing practice in low-resource communities in Nigeria, Rwanda, and Liberia, and later to apply lessons learned from communities in Brazil to issues of social isolation in West Baltimore. She has garnered more than $12 million in funding, as principal investigator and co-investigator, from diverse state and federal agencies and foundations. She has received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) for three global learning for health equity projects, one translating a social inclusion program from Brazil to Baltimore to reduce family social isolation in West Baltimore and the other building on this work to lead the development of a national global learning network to advance health equity by catalyzing communities across the United States. She is highly regarded for her collaborative spirit and currently leads the West Baltimore RICH (Reducing Isolation and Inequities in Cardiovascular Health) Collaborative, under a $2.4 million Pathways for Health Equity grant from the Maryland Community Health Resources Commission. This project includes a network of 15 community and faith-based organizations, academic institutions, and health care organizations working together to address hypertension and social isolation in West Baltimore. Engaged in local policy advocacy, Dean Ogbolu serves as the chair of the Social Determinants of Health Taskforce of Baltimore City, a novel policy intervention and the first legislatively mandated such committee in the nation. She has also served on taskforces to reduce disparities in newborn outcomes and to improve delivery of culturally and linguistically appropriate care.
Lynn M. Oswald, PhD, RN
Addictions
Dr. Oswald conducts research on neurobiological factors that underlie interrelationships among stress, childhood trauma, impulsive behavior, and risks for substance use disorders.
Barbara Resnick, PhD, RN, CRNP, FAAN, FAANP
Gerontology/Aging
Functional Status
An internationally recognized expert in gerontology, Dr. Resnick focuses on developing innovative interventions to motivate older adults to engage in healthy behaviors, particularly with regard to function and physical activity as well as other behaviors such as adhering to recommended immunizations and to managing pain and other symptoms commonly noted in aging, and to implement these in real-world settings. These interventions are designed to optimize recovery, health, function, and physical activity regardless of age or underlying co-morbidities. Examples include helping individuals recover from orthopedic events or, for individuals with and without dementia, to optimize their participation in personal care activities and ambulation and engage in physical activity.
Alison Trinkoff, ScD, MPH, RN, FAAN
Musculoskeletal Injuries
Long-Term Care
Dr. Trinkoff’s longitudinal study of more than 2,600 registered nurses examined the relationship among long work hours, needlestick injuries, and musculoskeletal disorders. More recently, her research has focused on the implications of nurses’ work environments on patient outcomes. She has been studying long-term care settings, including certified nursing assistant preparation and training, nursing home leadership, and their impact on resident care outcomes.