School of Nursing Faculty

Lynn Babington, PhD, RN, Associate Professor
Dr. Babington’s timely program of research is focused on improving the health of vulnerable populations, particularly immigrants. Her studies examine the health beliefs and practices of various immigrant groups to inform the development and testing of culturally appropriate and accessible interventions. She is currently working with pregnant immigrant women and mothers of infants and young children to develop and test an intervention aimed at preventing childhood obesity, taking into account the process of acculturation. She is a Faculty Scholar at the NU Institute on Urban Health Research and has received recent funding from the American Nurses Foundation.

Michelle Beauchesne, DNSc, RN, CPNP, FNAP, FAANP, Associate Professor
Dr. Beauchesne has been caring for children with developmental disabilities and their families for 30 years. Her program of research has a two-fold focus: to improve pediatric nurse practitioners’ (PNP’s) understanding of child development and better prepare advanced practice nurses to care for children and other vulnerable populations. As a post-doctoral LEND Fellow in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities, Dr. Beauchesne completed an analysis of Head Start Services for the Administration for Children and Families. She has studied children’s response to stressful events such as the war in Iraq and international adoption. In addition, Dr. Beauchesne is leading an international project examining similarities and differences in APN education and practice. Currently, she is investigating group mentoring as an approach to foster enthusiasm for health professions at an early age, and to improve emergent literacy in urban children at risk. Beauchesne’s research projects have received funding from the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners Research Foundation, Sigma Theta Tau International, the Commonwealth Fund and the National Health Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene.

Marge Benham-Hutchins, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor
Marge Benham-Hutchins is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing.  Marge received her PhD from the University of Arizona with a substantive research area of Healthcare Informatics.  Marge’s research interest includes the influence of health information technology on communication between healthcare providers from multiple professions along the continuum of care.  Her research is guided by the principles of Complexity Science and Social Network Analysis. 

Rhonda Board, PhD, RN, CCRN, Associate Professor
Dr. Board’s program of research is focused on investigating the effects of a pediatric critical care hospitalization on children and their families. Her work has moved from investigating parental stress to include a focus on understanding children’s stress in the pediatric intensive care unit and expansion from use of self-report to projective measures to inclusion of neuroendocrine measures. She has received research funding from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, American Nurses Foundation, John W. Alden Trust, and National Institute for Nursing Research.

Margaret Emerson (formerly Christensen), PhD, RN, CCRN, Associate Professor
Dr. Emerson’s research focus is on developing behavioral interventions to promote health, especially nutrition and physical activity, for use in treatment of alcohol and drug addiction. Dr. Emerson currently is studying weight gain in Latina and African American women who are in residential treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. The long-term objective of this research is to understand factors that contribute to weight gain in this population and to develop and test culturally appropriate weight management interventions using a mind-body approach. She has completed pilot work on weight gain in women during residential treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. A proposal to develop this work further is in review at the National Institute for Drug Abuse. Dr. Emerson’s clinical practice is in alcohol and drug detoxification. She is a Faculty Scholar at NU Institute on Urban Health Research and is a previous fellow in Project MAINSTREAM, a national substance abuse interdisciplinary project.

Carol Glod, PhD, RN, CS, FAAN, Professor
Dr. Glod is a leading researcher focusing on the psychobiology and treatment of childhood psychiatric disorders. She is the author of over 60 scientific publications and book chapters centering on adult and child psychopharmacology, the effects of childhood physical and sexual abuse, and circadian rhythms. She also is the author of, "Contemporary Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: The Brain Behavior Connection," a textbook published in 1998 by FA Davis. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Nursing Research, and an Independent Investigator Award from the National Association for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. Her program of research focuses on testing pharmacologic interventions in adolescent depression and on investigating the effects of antidepressants on brain functioning using MRI; treatment of seasonal affective disorder (SAD); and monitoring of depression. Dr. Glod is the recipient of several prestigious awards for both her teaching and research.

Nancy Hoffart, PhD, RN, Professor
Dr. Hoffart is a health services researcher who studies the impact of organizational change and innovation in nursing on staff, patient, and organization outcomes, as well as the effects of collaboration between nursing education and health care agencies on the delivery of patient care, nurse satisfaction, and nurse retention. She has conducted her federal and privately funded research in acute care hospitals and freestanding dialysis units. Her methodological expertise is in qualitative research approaches. Her current work is aimed at understanding the impact of the cooperative education model on student nurse outcomes. A current study examining factors that influence new graduate nurses’ transition to the RN workplace is funded by the National League for Nursing; a second descriptive study of international cooperative educational experiences is in process.

Elizabeth Howard, PhD, RN, NP, Associate Professor
Dr. Howard has focused most of her research on the functional ability of older adults. She began her work in this area two decades ago examining functional decline among hospitalized older adults. Currently she is examining the effects of behavioral counseling and exercise interventions on cardiovascular risk reduction for female, older adults in urban, faith-based communities. Dr. Howard is a Faculty Nurse Scientist at the Yvonne L. Munn Center for Nursing Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and a Scholar with The Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing Research, a leading organization in training and supporting geriatric nurse researchers. During the 2008-2009 academic year, Dr. Howard will be dedicating a portion of her time as a Visiting Scientist at the Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife.

Magdalena A. Mateo, PhD, RN, FAAN, Associate Professor
The research program of Dr. Mateo focuses on care of patients who sustain mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). After MTBI persons may experience cognitive, emotional, or physical problems. These are variables that have been examined in her studies. A frequent and debilitating impairment following MTBI is a deficit in prospective memory, the ability to recall and act upon time-dependent information to achieve one’s goals. Successful use of portable electronic memory aids for prospective memory deficits has been reported. She is currently examining differences in the effectiveness of accomplishing randomly assigned time-dependent tasks when MTBI subjects use the PalmZ22 hand-held palmtop computer, an electronic memory aid, as opposed to not using a palmtop computer. She is a co-author of the award winning research text, Using and Conducting Nursing Research in the Clinical Setting.

Lea Ann Matura, PhD, RN, ANP-C, Assistant Professor
Lea Ann Matura is an Assistant Professor who recently completed a two year postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.  She received her BS, MS, and PhD in nursing from Texas Woman’s University.  Her research areas include Turner Syndrome and the cardiovascular outcomes.

Angela Nannini, PhD, FNP-C, Assistant Professor
Dr. Nannini’s research interests are health disparities, population health, and measures of maternal health. She is currently co-PI for the Pregnancy to Early Life Longitudinal data project and principal investigator for a study of pregnancy-associated injury morbidity in Massachusetts, both of which are funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has also received funding from the American Nurses Foundation. She is a certified family nurse practitioner who is conversant in Spanish, and has over 25 years of clinical experience primarily working with Latino families in community health centers in MA. In addition she has worked at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on policy issues for over 15 years.

Lucine Poghosyan, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor
Lucine Poghosyan is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing and School of Health Professions/Master of Public Health Program.  Prior to coming to Northeastern, she was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also completed her doctoral work.  Lusine’s primary research interest is in the area of health outcomes and policy research.

Karen Pounds, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor
Karen Pounds is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing.  She is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing.  Karen has most recently been practicing clinically in outpatient mental health settings and taught the clinical portion of the Psychiatric – Mental Health course in the School of Nursing.  She recently successfully defended her PhD in nursing science at the University of Rhode Island. 

Susan Jo Roberts, DNSc, RN, ANP, FAAN, Professor
As principal investigator of the Boston Lesbian Health Project, Dr. Roberts has been researching the health care needs of lesbians for the last three decades. This program of research has clarified health care priorities and mental health needs for this population and contributed to more informed and sensitive care. Currently she is using focus groups to determine attitudes and beliefs of lesbians related to cardiovascular risk reduction, a study funded by the Lesbian Health Fund. A second area of research interest is the relationship between oppressed group behavior and empowerment in nurses and patients. A third area involves exploring the relationships between depression, aggression and health behaviors.

Affiliated Faculty and Their Research Interests

From Bouvé College of Health Sciences

Hortensia Amaro, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Counseling and Applied Educational Psychology Department, School of Health Professions; Director, Institute on Urban Health Research. HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention, drug abuse epidemiology and prevention and treatment models for Latina and African American women, domestic violence and post traumatic stress disorder, urban health, racial and ethnic disparities in health.

Judy Barr, ScD, Associate Professor, Pharmacy Practice Department, School of Pharmacy. Patient-centered outcome assessment, pharmacoeconomics, assessment of teaching and learning.

Deb Franko, PhD, Professor, Counseling and Applied Educational Psychology Department, School of Health Professions. Women’s health, specifically eating disorders, prevention of eating disorders in both middle school girls and first-year college women, pregnancy and eating disorders, and the development of risk factors in the children of mothers with anorexia and bulimia nervosa.

Karen Lifter, PhD, Professor, Counseling and Applied Educational Psychology Department, School of Health Professions. Play, language, and social development of young children with and without disabilities, bridging cognitive and behavioral theories.

Carmen Sceppa, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Health Sciences. Member, Network Minority Research Investigators;  Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Among Female Older Adults; Functional Ability and Functional Decline in Older Adults; Outcomes of Exercise among Older Adults; Evaluation of Health Care Education

Michail Sitkovsky, PhD, Professor & Eleanor M. Black Chair of Immunophysiology and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Sciences Department, School of Pharmacy; Director, New England Inflammation and Tissue Damage Institute. Pro-inflammatory cytokines are crucially important in the immune response and host defense against pathogens, but exceedingly intensive or prolonged inflammation processes represent the main cause of many different diseases. Molecular mechanisms, which terminate inflammation in vivo, are poorly understood. Dr. Sitkovsky’s studies explore basic and clinical implications of tissue inflammation.

From Other Northeastern University Departments

Barry Bluestone, PhD, Stearns Trustee Professor of Political Economy; Director, Center for Urban and Regional Policy; Dean, School of Social Science, Urban Affairs, and Public Policy. Urban development, labor market analysis, public policy, political economy, poverty and income distribution.

Luis Falcon, PhD, Professor, Sociology and Anthropology Department, College of Arts and Sciences; Vice Provost for Faculty and Graduate Education. Social support and stress in older Hispanic populations in an urban setting.

Joan Fitzgerald, PhD, Professor and Director, Law, Policy, and Society Program, College of Arts and Sciences. Urban and suburban economic development, labor economics and career advancement in low-paying jobs.

Judith Hall, PhD, Professor, Psychology Department, College of Arts and Sciences. Verbal and nonverbal behavior of health care providers and patients in medical visits, with focus on gender differences and correlates of patient outcomes such as satisfaction and adherence to medical regimens.

From Boston Area Health Care Agencies

Donna Barry, PhD, RN, Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Anne Berger, PhD, MBA, RN, Director, Nursing Systems Research, Children’s Hospital Boston.

Diane L. Carroll, PhD, APRN, BC, FAHA, NFESC, Nurse Researcher, Evonne Munn Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital. Cardiovascular nursing care, quality of life, alternative therapies.

Deborah D’Avolio, PhD, RN, APRN-BC, Geriatric Specialist and NICHE Leader, JAHF Claire M. Fagin Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Ann Dylis, PhD, RN, Nursing Research Scientist, Center for Clinical and Professional Development, Lahey Clinic Medical Center. Identification and exploration of factors that influence quality of life in families who have one or more members with neurofibromatosis 1(NF1), a genetic disorder.

Alice Gervasini, PhD, RN, Nurse Director, Trauma and Emergency Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital. Care and outcomes of clinical trauma patients.

Kathy Horvath, PhD, RN, Associate Director, Education, and Program Evaluation, New England Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, Bedford. Home safety, Alzheimer Disease.

Ann C. Hurley, DNSc, RN, Senior Nurse Scientist Emerita, Center for Excellence in Nursing, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Critical thinking skills in nurses, Alzheimer Disease, home safety.

Sanjay Raj Jain, MD, PhD, Instructor in Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Conduct of clinical trials in oncology, effects of stress on immune and endocrine function.
 
Marilyn Lanza, DNSc, RN, Associate Chief, Nursing Service for Research, Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, Bedford. Violence in health care.

Natalie McClain, PhD, PNP. Child abuse and maltreatment. Children’s Hospital, Boston.

Margaret McCabe, PhD, RN. Clinical Nurse Researcher, Children’s Hospital, Boston.

Jean Flatley McGuire, PhD, Assistant Secretary, Executive Office of Health and Human Services, State of Massachusetts. Prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, public health policy, international collaboration to improve the systems for HIV prevention and care.
 
Alice Pappas,  PhD, RN. Clinical Research Nurse, Program for Safety and Quality, Children’s Hospital, Boston.

Angelleen Peters-Lewis, PhD, RN, FNP. Director, Women and Newborn’s Nursing and Clinical Services, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.