This fall, the Connell School of Nursing welcomed four new faculty members. They are using state-of-the-art technology, trailblazing ideas, and time-tested practices to improve care of cancer patients and the frail elderly, and to educate future nurses.

Mei R. Fu

Photo: Chris Huang

Mei R. Fu

Barry Family/Goldman Sachs Endowed Professor in Nursing

Mei R. Fu, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, is a renowned nurse scientist and the Connell School’s inaugural Barry Family/Goldman Sachs Endowed Professor in Nursing. Her many honors include a 2017 induction into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame in recognition of her contributions to research and mentorship of future nurse scientists. Fu comes to the Connell School from the Rory Meyers College of Nursing at New York University (NYU).

Fu’s research focuses on better understanding and early detection of lymphedema, a painful swelling in the extremities caused by faulty lymphatic drainage that affects about 40 percent of breast cancer survivors. She became interested in lymphedema early in her nursing career while working in an oncology center in Missouri. “Women with lymphedema would say, ‘Mei, I don’t need sympathy—I need someone who can help me,’” recalls Fu, who found that medicine had little to offer these patients. She went on to work with colleagues at NYU, developing exercises that relieve lymphedema symptoms by promoting lymph flow.

Because the exercises must be performed precisely to be effective, Fu is developing a web-based tool that uses motion-sensor technology to track movements and provide feedback that patients can use on a mobile device or computer at home. She is also exploring the use of artificial intelligence to aid in the early detection of lymphedema.

Fu’s science career in health care almost didn’t happen. She came to the United States from her native China to study journalism in 1994, but quickly shifted course, eventually earning her doctorate in nursing from the University of Missouri in 2003. She is co-teaching Conceptual Basis for Advanced Practice Nursing as well as Advanced Qualitative Research Methods. “With the endowed chair, I hope to do more exciting research and mentor students and junior faculty,” says Fu. “The vision and goals of the Connell School are to relieve suffering of human beings, and that is truly consistent with my worldview.”

The Barry Family/Goldman Sachs Endowed Professorship in Nursing was established in 2014 with a gift from Steven M. Barry ’85 and Tammy J. Barry ’85, M.Ed. ’87, P ’14, ’17.

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“The vision and goals of the Connell School are to relieve suffering of human beings, and that is truly consistent with my worldview.”
Mei R. Fu, Barry Family/Goldman Sachs Endowed Professor in Nursing
Lisa Wood

Photo: Peter Julian

Lisa Wood

Professor

Lisa J. Wood, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, was doing post-doctoral research in cancer biology at Johns Hopkins University when she had a revelation. “I was studying the function of a protein in a cell, and it just seemed so abstract,” says Wood, who was born in England and earned a doctorate in molecular biology from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

“I realized that what I wanted to do was explore patient-oriented research questions.” That recognition led her to enroll in an accelerated bachelor of science program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Baltimore.

Wood considered becoming a pediatric nurse practitioner. But after graduating in 2000, she accepted a post as an assistant professor at the Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing in Portland, Oregon, where she collaborated with a colleague and mentor, Lillian Nail, Ph.D., RN, to study cancer and fatigue. “We pushed back on the usual clinical explanation, which was, ‘Well, of course you’re tired, you have cancer,’” says Wood. Their investigations in cell cultures and animal models revealed that chemotherapy drugs and radiation used to shrink malignant tumors trigger the release of inflammatory proteins, which in turn cause fatigue, malaise, and other “sickness behaviors.” Wood is particularly interested in learning why 20 percent of people who undergo cancer therapy develop long-term, persistent fatigue; she’s currently studying the problem among a group of 120 breast cancer survivors with a grant from the National Institute on Aging. In other research, Wood is preparing to study the link between balance and cognition in patients with cancer and Lyme disease.

Before she arrived at Boston College, Wood was the Amelia Peabody Professor in Nursing Research at the MGH Institute of Health Professions School of Nursing. As a professor at the Connell School, she’s co-teaching Research Design and Methods I and II in the doctoral program as well as Pharmacology and Nutrition Therapies, parts I and II, for undergraduates in the fall and spring semesters. “Should be fun!” says Wood, who relishes the role of mentor. “I’m looking forward to being able to share what I’ve learned.”

With a grant from the National Institute on Aging, Prof. Wood is studying why 20 percent of people who undergo cancer therapy develop long-term, persistent fatigue.
Christine Repsha

Photo: Chris Huang

Christine Repsha

Clinical Instructor and Director, Brown Family Clinical Learning Laboratory and CSON Simulation Centers

Christine Repsha, M.S., FNP-C, the new director of the Brown Family Clinical Learning Laboratory and CSON Simulation Centers, arrives at the Connell School from the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Lowell, where she was the nursing lab program manager at the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences. Repsha received a master’s degree from UMass Boston and is currently working toward her doctorate, with a concentration in health promotion in nursing, at UMass Lowell.

In her prior position. Repsha oversaw the expansion of the school’s nursing lab from a modest facility used only by fourth-year undergraduates to a state-of-the-art teaching center that eventually included 15 simulation manikins, several of which were high-fidelity simulated humans that breathe, have pulses, make body sounds, and mimic other biological functions. While at UMass Lowell, Repsha developed 30 new simulation scenarios covering the lifespan and medical specialties. “Most people don’t realize how much work it takes to create a simulation,” says Repsha. “When you do a simulation, you create the patient, including his or her whole story and medical history—all the intricacies that go into the patient’s case.”

The Connell School’s learning and simulation centers include 19 manikins, which Repsha says are particularly important for certain types of training, such as in pediatric medicine and nurse anesthesia. However, the centers also make significant use of actors (primarily undergraduates from other schools), who portray patients experiencing various medical conditions. “Boston College has built a really great simulation program,” says Repsha, adding that her priorities are to provide additional training for the actors who portray patients and to increase utilization of the lab by training faculty to conduct simulations on their own. “I’m looking forward to working with faculty,” she says, “to see where simulation can fit into their courses.”

“When you [develop] a simulation, you create the patient, including his or her whole story and medical history—all the intricacies that go into the patient’s case.”
Christine Repsha, Director, Brown Family Clinical Learning Laboratory and CSON Simulation Centers
Kellie LaPierre

Kellie LaPierre

Clinical Assistant Professor

This year marks a return to Boston College for Kellie LaPierre ’85, DNP, GNP-C, who not only received a bachelor’s degree from the Connell School but also taught as an undergraduate instructor from 2005 to 2008. “It’s like coming home,” says LaPierre, a gerontological nurse practitioner. She previously held a similar post at the Regis College School of Nursing in Weston, Mass. This fall, she taught Adult-Gerontology Primary Care, Advanced Health Assessment, and Advanced Pharmacology at the Connell School.

Caring for the elderly has been a priority for LaPierre since her earliest clinical experience at Veterans Affairs hospitals in Brockton and West Roxbury, where she said several of her patients had served as far back as World War I. Since 2012, LaPierre has been a nurse practitioner at Wellesley Primary Care in Wellesley, Mass. There, she reintroduced an old concept in medicine—the house call—to ensure that frail elderly members of the community got the attention and treatment they needed. “It takes them all day to get into the office for a 20-minute appointment,” she says. “It makes more sense for us to go into their homes.” One day a week, LaPierre will continue to be part of this program, in which she and several other nurse practitioners see about 120 patients in their residences or in assisted-living facilities throughout Massachusetts’s MetroWest region. (She even enlisted a mobile radiology unit for performing x-rays, as needed.)

LaPierre has traveled considerably farther in the interest of promoting health, however. At Regis College, she co-led a project known as Regis in Haiti, which was launched in 2007. LaPierre and her colleagues developed a graduate program for nursing instructors in the country, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. They drew 37 participants to earn master’s degrees in nursing and leadership over the course of a decade. “Their teaching abilities just blossomed,” says LaPierre, who has traveled to Haiti eight times. “They have become better teachers, and now they’re producing better nurses.”

Kellie LaPierre reintroduced an old concept in medicine—the house call—to ensure that frail elderly members of the community got the attention and treatment they needed. “It takes them all day to get into the office for a 20-minute appointment,” she says. “It makes more sense for us to go into their homes.”
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