NNR welcomes 4 new members to council

FYI: NINR Welcomes Four New Members to the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research, May 28, 2009 News Release - National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Four new members to the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research, the principal advisory board for the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), were recently announced. NINR, a component of the National Institutes of Health, supports clinical and basic research to establish a scientific basis for the care of individuals across the lifespan. Members of the council are drawn from the scientific and lay communities, embodying a diverse perspective from the fields of nursing, public and health policy, law, and economics. An important role of the council is to conduct a second level of review of grant applications that have been scored by scientific review groups.

The council meets three times a year on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md., to provide recommendations on the direction and support of the nursing, biomedical, social, and behavioral research that forms the evidence base for nursing practice.

At the NACNR meeting on May 19, 2009, NINR Director Patricia A. Grady, Ph.D. R.N., formally welcomed the following new members:

Barbara J. Guthrie, Ph.D., R.N., a nationally recognized expert in culturally responsive health-related policies and programs, is the associate dean for academic affairs and a tenured associate professor at the Yale University School of Nursing. She received her nursing diploma from the Freedmen’s Hospital School of Nursing at Howard University in Washington, D.C.; her bachelor’s in nursing from Boston University; her master’s in family health nursing from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh; and her doctorate from New York University. Prior to her position at Yale, Dr. Guthrie was an associate professor at the University of Michigan (U-M), where she served as associate director for the NINR-funded training center, Women’s Health Disparities: Interdisciplinary Training. She was also an associate faculty researcher in the U-M Institute of Social Research, Program for Research on Black Americans. Dr. Guthrie’s research has focused on health promotion and risk reduction programs for adolescent girls from diverse ethnic, social, and environmental backgrounds. Dr. Guthrie is widely published in nursing and interdisciplinary journals.

Kathleen Potempa, D.N.Sc., R.N., is the dean of the University of Michigan School of Nursing, and a past Dean of the School of Nursing at the Oregon Health and Science University. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Detroit; and her master’s and doctor of nursing science degrees from Rush University in Chicago. Dr. Potempa has served on several committees of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the American Academy of Nursing, as well as on NIH review panels. In 2001, she was appointed to a five-year term on the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice. She was the principal investigator for The Healthy Aging Project, funded by HHS’ Administration on Aging. Dr. Potempa has presented papers nationally and internationally, including visiting professorship lectures in China, Japan, and Taiwan. Dr. Potempa’s research program has focused on fatigue, exercise and cardiovascular fitness, and she has 25 years of experience in nursing education, research, and administration.

Gail Stuart, Ph.D., R.N., is the dean of the Medical University of South Carolina College of Nursing, as well as a professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Georgetown University, her master’s degree in psychiatric nursing from the University of Maryland, and her doctorate in behavioral sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a distinguished practitioner in the National Academies of Practice, and past president of the American College of Mental Health Administration and the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. She has also been a visiting professor at King’s College Institute of Psychiatry in London. She currently serves as chair of the board of the Annapolis Coalition on the Behavioral Health Workforce. She has received many awards, and her textbook, Principles and Practice of Psychiatric Nursing, has been honored as a Book of the Year from the American Journal of Nursing. Dr. Stuart has represented nursing on a variety of National Institute of Mental Health policy and research panels, and her clinical and research interests involve the study of depression, anxiety disorders, clinical outcomes, and mental health delivery systems.

Janet Williams, Ph.D., R.N., is the Kelting Professor of Nursing at the University of Iowa (UI) College of Nursing, and a co-director of the NINR-funded training center, Postdoctoral Training in Clinical Genetics Research.
She received her diploma in nursing from the Iowa Methodist School of Nursing; and her bachelor’s and master’s in nursing and Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from UI. A pediatric nurse practitioner and genetics nurse specialist, she is past president of the International Society of Nurses in Genetics. Her research interests include work on coping and expectations of persons undergoing predictive genetic testing for Huntington’s disease (HD). She is the principal investigator on an NINR-funded, multi-center study to identify health concerns and health care needs of family members caring for persons with HD, including the impact of testing on family members. In addition, Dr. Williams conducts research on genetic discrimination and serves as a consultant on numerous national and international projects to promote education and practice of nurses regarding genetics.

NINR supports basic and clinical research that develops the knowledge to build the scientific foundation for clinical practice, prevent disease and disability, manage and eliminate symptoms caused by illness, and enhance end-of-life and palliative care. For more information about NINR, visit the Web site at www.ninr.nih.gov.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.