American Academy of Nursing inductees
The American Academy of Nursing (AAN) selected six outstanding Connell School alumni as fellows of the academy this fall. Recognized for their substantial contributions to health and health care are:
Lisa Duffy, M.S. ’02, Ph.D. ’13 – joint associate professor, UMass Amherst Elaine Marieb College of Nursing and the Institute for Applied Life Sciences
Valerie Fuller, ’91, M.S. ’98 – president, American Association of Nurse Practitioners
Patricia Lawrence, M.S. ’92 – assistant professor and director of Project Healthy Grandparents at Georgia State University School of Public Health
Kristen Sethares, Ph.D. ’03 – professor, UMass Dartmouth College of Nursing and Health Sciences
Cathy St. Pierre, Ph.D. ’95 – nurse researcher, VA Bedford Healthcare System
John Welch, M.S. ’12 – senior director of clinical systems, Partners in Health; senior nurse anesthetist, cardiac anesthesia, Boston Children's Hospital; Director of Nurse Anesthesia DNP Track, The Ohio State University College of Nursing
Research
Two Ph.D. students were awarded Nurses Educational Funds scholarships for the 2025–2026 academic year.
Alyssa Creonte, who is studying loneliness among older adults and older adult informal caregivers, received the Evelyn J. Barclay Scholarship.
Jacqueline Massaro, who is researching equitable pressure injury prevention in acute care settings, is the inaugural recipient of the Maxine E. Elkan Scholarship.
Ph.D. student Nicholas Raposo’s paper “Nurses’ Role in the Birth Experience: An Integrative Review” which he co-authored with Professor Corrine Jurgens, was voted the American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing scholarly review article of the year.
Assistant Professor Patricia Underwood presented a talk on cognitive decline and diabetes in older adults at the American Association of Nurse Practitioner conference in June. She was also interviewed for the news syndicate Health Day.
Assistant Professor Melissa Uveges was awarded a grant from the American Heart Association to support her project studying the screening of pediatric patients for a genetic condition that causes “bad cholesterol.”
Faculty member Brittney van de Water was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor. She gave the tenure talk “From Research to Impact: Utilizing Implementation Science in Global Nursing” in May.
The Connell School awarded the following faculty with CSON Innovation Grants:
Assistant Professor Soojung Ahn for her project Exploring Self-care Behaviors in Heart Failure Caregivers with Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Pilot Mixed-Methods Study
Associate Professor of the Practice Thamarah Crevecoeur for her Pilot Study to Examine Implementation of a Multidisciplinary Model of Group Prenatal Care Tailored for the Haitian Immigrant Community in Boston.
Associate Professor Anna Klarare for her project Simulation to Promote Clinical Reasoning and to Operationalize Equitable Person-Centered Care in Undergraduate Nursing Students
Associate Professor Brittney van de Water for her project Feasibility of the Pediatric Observational study to Understand Post-TB Treatment Completion, Morbidity, Environmental, and Spatial Links
Students and alumni
Ph.D. candidate Nickie Burney was awarded an Abbott Scholarship from the National Black Nurses Association. Her research investigates the role of hospital environments in shaping diabetes outcomes among vulnerable populations.
Oumou Diallo ’26 was awarded a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship from the U.S. State Department, providing her with a semester-long, study-abroad experience in the United Arab Emirates. (Pictured, Diallo in front of the Sheik Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi.)
Nationally recognized nurse practitioner, educator, and health policy advocate Valerie Fuller ’91, M.S. ’98, was named president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners in June.
Faculty
Professor Ann Burgess was also featured in a May interview on WBZ-TV/CBS Boston on the three-part Hulu documentary on her life and work as a psychiatric nurse pioneer. The Hulu series, Mastermind: To Think Like A Killer, was nominated for an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary.
Professor Ann Burgess was included in a CNN piece on women who seek to understand those who kill. And at CrimeCon in Denver, she shared the stage with legendary hip-hop artist Ice T (pictured).
Expert Witness: The Weight of Our Testimony When Justice Hangs in the Balance (Grand Central Publishing, 2025), by Professor Ann Burgess and Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Steven Constantine, delves into Burgess’s role as a trauma expert in some of the biggest criminal court cases in the last 30 years.
Associate Professor Andrew Dwyer co-organized the May 2025 Hamilton Symposium, which was themed Rare Diseases from Mechanism, to Molecules, to Market.
Professor Emerita Elizabeth Howard, CSON’s program evaluation and accreditation officer, is an on-site evaluator for the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
Assistant Professor Victor Petreca wrote about why violent acts are often blamed on mental illness in TIME magazine and about the new role that psychiatric diagnosis has taken on in public life in the Boston Globe Ideas section.
Scholarly summaries
Faculty and their teams present research in peer-reviewed journals and at lecterns around the world
Publications
- In the Journal of Medical Internet Research, Assistant Professor Eunji Cho and Assistant Professor Elizabeth Broden Arciprete investigate strategies to mitigate fraud while ensuring equity in online qualitative studies.
- In Violence Against Women, Associate Professor Anna Klarare seeks to understand associations between violence and distress in women experiencing homelessness.
- In PLOS Global Public Health, Associate Professor Katelyn Sileo developed and testing gender-sensitive training for HIV care providers in Uganda.
Presentations
- At the annual meeting of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, Assistant Professor of the Practice Alison Marshall presented on a new, hybrid health care role she helped create: the nurse practitioner anchor.
- In her Nurses Week keynote speech at the Department of Nursing at Penn Medicine conference, Associate Professor of the Practice Aimee Milliken explained how nurses can engage with everyday ethics and ethical awareness.
- At the International Nursing Research Congress, Associate Professor Brittney van de Water discussed using implementation science methods to examine a novel preceptor program in Malawi. The study was recently published in Nursing Open with coauthors that included Olivia Yang ’24 and Ijaabo Ali ’24.
Pinnacle lecture
Holly Powell Kennedy was the Dr. Maureen P. McCausland Pinnacle Keynote Speaker for the fall Pinnacle lecture, “Meeting the Moment: Delivering Excellence in an Era of Health Care Scarcity.” Kennedy is the Helen Varney Professor of Midwifery Emerita at the Yale University School of Nursing.
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