Year in review 2020-2021
YEAR IN REVIEW 2020–2021
This year has been a year unlike any other. And yet, we still have so much to be thankful for, so much to be proud of, and so much to reflect on. Boston College nurses have accomplished a great deal in 2020–2021, from continuing to lead by example during the COVID pandemic, to pursuing cutting-edge research, to playing a vital role in Massachusetts’s decision to grant full-practice authority for nurse practitioners.
This edition of the Year in Review details achievements of our faculty, alumni, and students. And as I write of these and reflect on the great many successes I’ve seen during my tenure as dean of the Connell School, I can’t help but feel hopeful for all that’s to come next.
With this being the final letter I send out as dean of the Connell School, I’d be remiss not to take the opportunity to say thank you for your support, camaraderie, and encouragement over the last 13 years. It’s been quite an adventure.
Wishing you good health and safety,
Dean Susan Gennaro
Dean and Professor Susan Gennaro, an internationally recognized nurse scientist who has led the Boston College Connell School of Nursing (CSON) since 2008, will step down as dean on June 30. She will remain a member of the Connell School faculty. Gennaro is co-principal investigator of a major study, funded by the NIH’s National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, of a prenatal care intervention for pregnant minority women experiencing emotional distress. She also is editor of the highly ranked Journal of Nursing Scholarship.
Gennaro’s standout achievements are many, and include the advancement of academic excellence and curricular change at CSON, notably establishment of the Doctor of Nursing Practice program; initiatives to promote social justice; educational partnerships with university partners in Europe, South America, and Australia; and international service trips to care for and provide health education to local and indigenous communities.
On July 1, Katherine E. Gregory, the associate chief nursing officer for women’s and newborn health, research, and innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, will become the eighth dean of the Connell School of Nursing. A visionary nurse leader, educator, and researcher, Gregory is returning to Boston College, where she received a Ph.D. in nursing in 2006, and served on the faculty from 2006 to 2014.
At Brigham and Women’s, the largest birth hospital in Massachusetts, Gregory led a division comprising approximately 700 nurses and clinical staff, and oversaw clinical operations and research and innovation efforts within the Department of Nursing. She also served as the senior nurse executive on Brigham and Women’s Executive Advisory Council for Diversity, Inclusion, Health Equity, and Community Health.
The pandemic brought signal changes to teaching and learning: Courses were taught in-person, online, or in a hybrid mode. Classrooms, limited to 50 percent capacity, were reorganized to ensure social distancing. Face masks were required in classrooms and common areas throughout the campus.
With knowledge and experience in handling infectious disease control, patient and provider safety, and clinical care, the Connell School faculty and staff played a critical role in planning and executing Boston College’s efforts to keep students safe on campus during the 2020–2021 academic year.
- Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Clinical Professor Colleen Simonelli served on the University’s COVID task force and worked with CSON’s clinical partners to ensure that nursing students were in compliance with official COVID protocols.
- Nine CSON faculty members and 57 graduate students conducted COVID testing of BC students, faculty, and staff throughout the 2020–2021 academic year.
- Clinical Assistant Professor Patricia Underwood, working with University Health Services, enlisted nurse practitioner (NP) students to make twice-weekly telehealth support and wellness check-ins with COVID-positive BC students.
- Clinical Associate Professor Carol Anne Marchetti oversaw two graduate students who ran a therapeutic support group for undergraduates referred by University Counseling Services.
- Connell School faculty also served as informal COVID experts for colleagues from other disciplines, offering advice, information, and resources to them across campus.
- Graduate Programs and Admissions Specialist MaryBeth Crowley coordinated the “swabber schedule” of CSON’s community members who conducted COVID-19 testing at BC.
The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing clarified its requirements for licensure, extending the policy for undergraduates that simulation and virtual simulation can be used to meet objectives in lieu of direct patient care for the academic year.
With anxiety rising and accurate information about COVID in high demand, epidemiologist and Assistant Professor Nadia Abuelezam was sought out for comment by more than a dozen major news outlets including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, MSNBC’s Morning Joe and AM Joy, WBUR News, and CNN.com.
“On the day of the COVID vaccine clinic, it was a surreal experience to be able to play a small role in ending this pandemic.”
In October, the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) inducted these CSON community members as fellows at AAN’s virtual conference
- Assistant Professor Andrew Dwyer
- James Dionne-Odom, Ph.D. ’13
- Patricia Reidy ’72, M.S. ’89
- Ellen Robinson, M.S. ’83, Ph.D. ’97
- Lisa Wolf, Ph.D. ’11
In April, CSON sponsored a case competition challenging Boston College undergraduates to develop a proposal that examines and analyzes the public health, environmental, governmental, and socioeconomic implications of effective medical waste management. The top three proposals received funding to further develop their ideas. Two CSON students—Vanessa Lorden ’24 and Oluchi Ota ’24—were on the team that placed second at the event, which was hosted by BC’s Student Health Equity Forum.
Assistant Professor Nadia Abuelezam and her team of epidemiologists at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health received an R56 Bridge award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for their project “Modeling the Role of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in Getting to Zero.” Many U.S. cities have set a goal to reduce the number of new HIV infections to zero. To support this, Abuelezam’s team will use a mathematical model to help city officials, specifically in Miami, better understand the levels of PrEP use that will be necessary to reduce HIV transmissions and new infections.
The federal government could acknowledge sacrifices nurses have made during the pandemic by forgiving student loans, DNP candidates Sara Bowen and Emily Bower wrote in “Fortifying Future Supply,” published in the American Healthcare Journal. Read the article.
Ph.D. candidate Melissa Capotosto, M.S. ’12, and Associate Professor Corrine Jurgens were awarded third place in the early Ph.D. poster category at the 2020 Eastern Nursing Research Society student poster awards for their project “Fertile Ground: Exploring Fertility Awareness Practices Among Women Seeking Pregnancy.”
Doctoral candidate Amy Delaney was awarded a Clinical Research Grant from the Alpha Chi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau for her research project “Parents’ Perspectives on the Care for Their Children with Congenital Heart Disease Across the Lifespan.”
Assistant Professor Andrew Dwyer and his team were awarded an R03 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences for their project “Identifying Predictors of Reversible Congenital Hypogonadotropic Hypogonadism.” Dwyer was also awarded a Boston College Research Expense Grant for his project “Elucidating Patient Decision-making for Testing of Common and Rare Genetic Conditions.” Read more about Dwyer’s research.
Doctoral student Katie Jones coauthored the article “Adapting Palliative Care Skills to Provide Substance Use Disorder Treatment to Patients with Serious Illness” in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Read the article. She also coauthored “Confronting Stigma from Opioid Use Disorder in Cancer Care,” a blog post in Pallimed, which promotes evidence-based substance use disorder care for patients with serious illness.
Associate Dean for Research and Professor Christopher Lee, a cardiovascular nurse scientist, was appointed to the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research and joined the new National Institute for Nursing Research Strategic Plan Working Group, which helps set the agenda for the next five years of science sponsored by the institute. Lee also received the 2020 Mathy Mezey Excellence in Aging Award from the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing. Read about these honors.
Research Scholar Cherlie Magny-Normilus and her team were awarded a K99/R00 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research for their project “Self-Management and Glycemic Control in Adult Haitian Immigrants with Type 2 Diabetes.”Research Scholar Cherlie Magny-Normilus and her team were awarded a K99/R00 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research for their project “Self-Management and Glycemic Control in Adult Haitian Immigrants with Type 2 Diabetes.”
Doctoral candidate Kate McNair was awarded a Clinical Research Grant from the Alpha Chi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau for her research “The Influence of #MeToo on Sexual Assault Survivors’ Decision Making and Health Behaviors: A Qualitative Study.”
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker temporarily waived physician supervision of NPs in March 2020. Assistant Professor Monica O’Reilly-Jacob says, “The Massachusetts waiver of NP supervisory requirements granted during the beginning of the pandemic presented a unique opportunity to examine whether a temporary removal of one layer of restrictions would make a meaningful difference in the day-to-day work of the NPs.” She and her research colleague published their findings in the journal Medical Care. Read more about full-practice authority.
David Zulewski ’22 and Colleen Simonelli, associate dean for undergraduate programs and clinical professor, were awarded second place in the bachelor of science poster category at the 2020 Eastern Nursing Research Society student poster awards for their project “Quantitative Research: Changes in Neurofilament Light, a Marker of Axonal Damage in Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Taxane-Based Chemotherapy.”
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Physician and epidemiologist Camara Phyllis Jones, who is a senior fellow at Morehouse School of Medicine’s Satcher Health Leadership Institute and Cardiovascular Research Institute, spoke virtually at Boston College in October about structural racism, health care, and how students can act as anti-racism change agents.
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Patricia Davidson, dean of Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, gave the first-ever virtual Pinnacle lecture in November on “COVID-19: Lessons Learned and a Call to Action.”
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Outgoing Connell School Dean Susan Gennaro presented her own talk, “Lighting the Way So Others Will Follow,” at the March Pinnacle lecture. The dean discussed what she has learned about leadership, service, and the spirit of nursing in her 13-year tenure at Boston College. Read more about the lecture and view video.
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Also in March, CSON cosponsored “So You Want to Talk about Race?” a talk by New York Times best-selling author Ijeoma Oluo based on her book of the same name. The lecture was supported by the Institute for Liberal Arts and cosponsored by BC’s Center for Teaching Excellence and Intersections.
On January 1, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts became the 23rd state in the nation to grant full-practice authority (FPA) to NPs—a landmark legislative effort spearheaded by the Massachusetts Coalition of Nurse Practitioners. CSON faculty, students, and alumni, including doctoral candidate Amy Delaney, Julianne Nemes-Walsh, M.S. ’86, and Clinical Associate Professor Laura White, were instrumental in crafting and advocating for the legislation.
Health equity expert Lin Zhan, Ph.D. ’93, dean of the University of Memphis Loewenberg College of Nursing, was named dean of the UCLA School of Nursing, effective August 1.
Danielle Grimm, M.S. ’12, was named to the Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health Board of Directors.
Clinical Assistant Professor Donna Cullinan, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Clinical Professor Colleen Simonelli, Clinical Instructor Maureen Connolly, and Clinical Assistant Professor Kellie LaPierre led 19 undergraduates and five graduate students to the northernmost part of Maine for a week in April. Their goal was to provide care and health education to the residents of Aroostook County. Working in partnership with Catholic Charities Maine and the Maine Department of Public Health, they assisted with vaccine clinics, blood drives, and oral health assessments, and conducted health education classes.
