When Sarah Beebe began the Ph.D. program at GW Nursing, she made it a priority to complete her degree in three years. Despite the onset of a global pandemic that continues to upend daily routines and well-laid plans, Ms. Beebe is on track to defend her dissertation and graduate in spring 2022.
“I never missed a beat,” she proudly states, “but I might have missed a lot of sleep.”
Prior to joining the School of Nursing’s inaugural Ph.D. cohort in 2019, Ms. Beebe spent eight years working as a women’s health nurse practitioner and certified nurse-midwife in Delaware and Pennsylvania. She spent three of those years as a nurse and five as a midwife/nurse practitioner. In 2017, she became a full-time faculty member at the University of Delaware School of Nursing, teaching an undergraduate women’s health course.
“One of the reasons I love simulation is that we can practice different skills and reduce the risk of errors.”
– Sarah Beebe
After conducting some small independent research studies, Ms. Beebe recognized that she needed formal training and education to advance her understanding of research science. “I saw research as a puzzle, and I wanted to be better at putting that puzzle together,” she explains.
During her time at the University of Delaware, Ms. Beebe became a certified health care simulation educator, and that interest in simulation led her to apply for GW’s Ph.D. program.
Ms. Beebe’s dissertation investigates metacognition in family nurse practitioner students to understand the link between diagnostic reasoning and diagnostic errors, using simulation. “Diagnostic error is a major [patient safety] concern,” she says. “One of the reasons I love simulation is that we can practice different skills and reduce the risk of errors.”
Ms. Beebe left her full-time faculty position to commit to earning her Ph.D. as quickly as possible. That commitment was made possible in part by the McNelis Nursing Education Research Dissertation Award. “Dr. McNelis really values nursing education research,” Ms. Beebe notes. “We see educational research as improving future nurses and providers so that they can make new strides in clinical research and practice.”
Ms. Beebe plans to return to academia after completing the Ph.D. program. “But this time I’ll know what I’m doing,” she adds.
Treating the whole patient
Chad Huckabee plans to take to the skies. As a life flight nurse that is. He knows he will achieve his lofty goals, just as he knows what grade point average he will achieve upon graduation (somewhere between 3.7 and 4.0). Mr. Huckabee sets high standards for himself, thanks in part to his 10 years in the U.S. Marine Corps.
“Being a physical therapist didn’t match up with my thoughts of patient care. It was more about treating symptoms than taking care of the person holistically, which is what I wanted to do.”
– Chad Huckabee
Mr. Huckabee was drawn to a career in nursing after stints as a police officer and time spent studying to become a physical therapist in Texas. “Being a physical therapist didn’t match up with my thoughts of patient care,” he says. “It was more about treating symptoms than taking care of the person holistically, which is what I wanted to do.”
Eager to complete a new degree and begin his nursing career, Mr. Huckabee researched accelerated B.S.N. programs and ultimately chose GW. “What brought me to GW was the veteran compatibility,” he explains. “Most of my professors are veterans; having that to lean on [was important]. And they’re well ranked in the United States. If I was going to learn to be a nurse, I wanted to learn to be a nurse from a program that has high standards.”
Mr. Huckabee used his GI Bill to fund his PT degrees, leaving him to pay for his nursing degree on his own, but he received help from the GW Hospital Women’s Board Scholarship. “The scholarship put a dent in the student loans I have to pay back when I graduate—it’s a financial lift for me and my family,” he says.
That financial support helps Mr. Huckabee focus on his first weeks of clinical rotations in the medical surgical unit of GW Hospital. “It was what they said it was—hard, fast, crazy, but fun,” he says. “But for me, I thrive in chaos and disorder. My first day, I was taken aback by how different each patient could be, but what I learned and experienced I was able to start putting together.”
Mr. Huckabee is energized by the challenge of treating patients and he looks beyond traditional categories that might define them. “It’s about looking at the patient holistically, not just what they came to the hospital for,” he notes. “I want to take care of the patient and give them a full therapeutic idea of how they can help themselves, rather than treating symptoms and diagnoses.”
A passion for serving others
Moses Win has faced life-threatening challenges since the day he was born. His family belongs to the Karen people of Burma (now known as Myanmar), an ethnic minority that has been persecuted by the Burmese military for decades. Mr. Win was born and raised in the delta division of Burma and later escaped to a refugee camp in Thailand. His childhood was filled with obstacles—he received little education and suffered from bouts of illness because of the camp’s poor living conditions.
The nurses who cared for him in the refugee hospital made a lasting impression. “Fortunately I survived, but many young kids like me did not,” he says. “I thank God for my miracle, that I am still here, and for all the nurses who nursed me back to health.”
“I’m more motivated than ever to become a nurse to help others and provide for my family.”
– Moses Win
Mr. Win immigrated to America as a teenager with the help of the U.N. Refugee Agency and Catholic Charities. “[Catholic Charities] took care of me while I came here as a teenager alone,” he recalls. “I didn’t know anybody, I didn’t speak English.” He wanted to join the military “and pay back this country by serving, because they took me in,” he explains.
His first attempt was denied because he didn’t have a high school diploma. He pursued a high school diploma while working full-time and mastering English. His second attempt to join up was also denied because his online diploma was missing certain credits. Mr. Win enrolled in Houston Community College to receive additional credits while working part-time. The third time was the charm, and he joined the U.S. Navy in 2011 because “I would get to experience the world, and maybe be able to visit Thailand or Burma,” he says.
During his time in the Navy, Mr. Win received a medical technology associate’s degree from GWU. He went on to become an officer in the Navy Medical Service Corps and worked as a health care administrator, but it didn’t feel like his calling. His positive experience at GWU led him to the GW School of Nursing, where he received the William and Joanne Conway Transitioning Warrior Nursing Scholarship, which covers 50 percent of an incoming veteran’s tuition.
The scholarship supports Mr. Win’s immediate and future nursing goals, which include returning to hospitals along the Thai-Burmese border. “Burma’s current situation is very volatile, and my parents and sisters are in distress,” he explains. “I’m more motivated than ever to become a nurse to help others and provide for my family.”
The George Washington University School of Nursing’s graduate programs develop nurses who provide excellent care. They also train nurses to lead.
In U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 rankings of the “Best Online Master’s in Nursing Administration Programs,” GW Nursing was designated among the best, ranking No. 2 in Best Online Master’s in Nursing for Veterans, and No. 3 in Best Online Master’s in Nursing Administration & Leadership Programs.
GW Nursing’s emphasis on leadership development and public policy knowledge makes its graduate programs stand out. The faculty prepares students to serve as leaders at every level of nursing; to develop sound health policy; and to use their voices to advocate for patients, families, and communities.
Learn about four GW Nursing faculty members leading the way as practitioners, advocates, researchers, and educators.
Take On New Challenges
“I love the field of nursing. I’m really passionate about it,” said GW Nursing Professor Joyce Pulcini, Ph.D., RN, PNP-BC, FAAN. “It has offered me so many avenues to grow and to become a leader.”
As a nurse practitioner, author, educator, and organizational leader, Dr. Pulcini has always welcomed opportunities to lead. “I think the key to leadership is taking on a challenge when it comes to you,” she said. “You never know when that’s going to be.”
She has led initiatives and programs to train nurses and nurse practitioners in the U.S. and globally. In 2021, she was honored by the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) with the Lifetime Achievement Award, given to recipients “whose contributions have been visionary and stalwart in successfully developing and promoting the role of the nurse practitioner.”
“I love the field of nursing. I’m really passionate about it. It has offered me so many avenues to grow and to become a leader.”
– Dr. Pulcini
She has led initiatives and programs to train nurses and nurse practitioners in the U.S. and globally. In 2021, she was honored by the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) with the Lifetime Achievement Award, given to recipients “whose contributions have been visionary and stalwart in successfully developing and promoting the role of the nurse practitioner.”
For Dr. Pulcini, who has served as NONPF president, the award is personally and professionally rewarding. “[The NONPF] is near and dear to my heart,” she said. “I’m very honored they would give me the Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Dr. Pulcini has been a leader in health care and nursing policy at the local, state, and national levels. She shares her knowledge, research, and experience through courses such as Health Policy, Quality, and Political Process, where students analyze the three main components of health policy: cost, quality, and access.
At GW Nursing, students gain the clinical training, leadership skills, and policy knowledge needed to lead, Dr. Pulcini said.
“In addition to the clinical content, we try to move students to the next level with the Nursing Leadership course and with policy courses,” said Dr. Pulcini. “GW prepares graduates to be leaders in the field.”
Create Positive Change
“Nurses have the ability to serve as change agents in creating systems that bridge health care and social care,” Ashley Darcy-Mahoney, Ph.D., NNP, FAAN said.
Dr. Darcy-Mahoney is the interim director of infant research at GW’s Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute, associate professor, and a neonatal nurse practitioner and researcher.
Last year, she served as the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Distinguished Nurse Scholar-in-Residence (2020-2021). “The goal of the program is to encourage nurse leaders to play a more prominent role in health policy, and to make nursing part of the public conversation when we think about health and policy,” Dr. Darcy-Mahoney said.
“Not only can we create wonderful, incredible, smart, dedicated clinicians as part of our School of Nursing, but we can also create powerful advocates for change at the local, state, and federal levels.”
– Dr. Darcy-Mahoney
As scholar-in-residence, she contributed to NAM’s Future of Nursing Report: 2020-2030, which focuses on topics such as reducing barriers to health care access, increasing equity, instituting pay reform, and diversifying the nursing workforce.
GW’s Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute conducts research to improve understanding of the root causes of autism spectrum disorder and to enhance diagnosis and treatment options. As the institute’s leader, Dr. Darcy-Mahoney ensures the team has the necessary environment and resources to conduct innovative research.
This semester, Dr. Darcy-Mahoney teaches the graduate-level Genetics course; and in the spring, she will lead a public health nursing course for graduate students, and a course on pediatric adversity for undergraduate students.
Dr. Darcy-Mahoney believes GW Nursing prepares graduates to bring about positive change. “Not only can we create wonderful, incredible, smart, dedicated clinicians as part of our School of Nursing, but we can also create powerful advocates for change at the local, state, and federal levels,” Dr. Darcy-Mahoney said.
Advance Health Care Quality
GW Nursing instructor Esther Emard, M.S.N., MSLIR, RN, CPHQ, has a passion for providing high-quality care that started early in her career.
“I was a critical care nurse specialist, involved in providing high-quality care and safe care to patients in extremely vulnerable conditions,” Ms. Emard said. “As I advanced through the levels of nursing leadership, which I was very fortunate to do, it became even clearer to me how important it was to make sure that as nurses we continue to advance our knowledge, skill, and competencies to deliver high-quality care that is safe.”
Ms. Emard was recently elected to the board of the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ), which is the only organization dedicated to health care quality professionals. The NAHQ offers the only nationally recognized certification in health care quality, the Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality®.
“Nurses are at the front line, providing health and health care across the life span. We need to be at the table in policy discussions.”
– Esther Emard
GW Nursing aims to prepare students to achieve this credential with a new graduate-level course developed with the NAHQ. Ms. Emard helped to design the Advancing Health Care Quality and Patient Safety course, which will be offered through the Nursing Leadership and Management master’s degree program next academic year.
Additionally, Ms. Emard serves as faculty for the Health Care Quality Process; Health Policy, Quality and Political Process; and Health Care Quality Improvement courses, as well as for the Patient Safety Systems course for GW’s School of Health Science, where she also has an adjunct appointment.
“Nursing is one of the largest professions in health care, and nurses are at the front line, providing health and health care across the life span,” Ms. Emard said. “We need to be at the table in policy discussions. We bring the competency, the knowledge, skill, and the expertise to those discussions, along with our health care colleagues, on advancing health care quality and patient safety.”
Advocate for Underserved Populations
“Being a nurse leader doesn’t always mean that you’re the manager or the CEO. There is leadership at all levels,” Joyce Knestrick,Ph.D., FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN said. “For me, it’s always an adventure to see what I can do to make improvements and to see what I can change to make things better.”
Dr. Knestrick is director of nurse leadership management, director of executive leadership, and an associate professor. This semester, she teaches the graduate course Health Care Enterprise.
As a family nurse practitioner, Dr. Knestrick practices in rural Appalachia, caring for low-income and underserved populations, and she advocates for legislation that removes barriers to access to high-quality, affordable health care.
“We have a faculty of outstanding leaders who understand what it takes to be a leader in today’s changing times..”
– Dr. Knestrick
For her career of dedicated service, Dr. Knestrick was awarded the American Association of Nurse Practitioners’ (AANP’s) 2021 Towers Pinnacle Award, which honors recipients who exemplify advocacy, passion, and dedication to the advancement of the nurse practitioner role through policy, practice, and education.
“Dr. Knestrick’s advocacy and scholarship research led to the development of community health centers in Appalachia that have become a national model for quality health services for underserved rural areas,” AANP’s website states.
For Dr. Knestrick, being a leader means being willing to step in to solve difficult problems. “I, always in my career, have been a person who is looking for a solution. I think that I’ve always tried to look for how we can fix or solve a puzzle or problem,” said Dr. Knestrick.
As the global community continues to face the ongoing pandemic, nurses play a critical role in creating solutions, providing safe and high-quality care, and advocating for the patients and communities they serve. At GW Nursing, the award-winning faculty offers advice, support, and knowledge to prepare graduates to meet these challenges.
“We really mentor our students to do well,” Dr. Knestrick said. “We have a faculty of outstanding leaders who understand what it takes to be a leader in today’s changing times.”
For the past few years, GW Nursing Assistant Professor Erin Athey, D.N.P., FNP-BC, RN, FAANP has been working with United Medical Center (UMC) in Washington, D.C., running its mobile clinic program. Before COVID-19 struck, she partnered with the District of Columbia Housing Authority to provide primary and preventative care to people in Wards 7 and 8 public housing. The UMC mobile vans, out of which she operates the clinic, help to address health disparities and improve access to health care for the most underserved populations in D.C. These clinics also provide a unique and vital opportunity for GW Nursing students to get clinical hours and serve these communities.
COVID-19-era work
Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the mobile clinic program received federal funds through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to support its ongoing work and to equip it for the new challenges posed by COVID-19. By July 2020, the mobile clinic was going into the community two to three days each week. Dr. Athey and her students conducted extensive PCR COVID-19 testing during the summer and fall of 2020 while continuing to provide care such as HIV testing, general health care screenings, and referrals.
Beginning in 2021, once the COVID-19 vaccines received emergency use authorization, Dr. Athey used the vans as vaccination clinics, going to family properties throughout Wards 7 and 8. As was the case throughout much of the country, there was initially a huge demand for the vaccine, but in summer 2021, Dr. Athey and her team began to encounter fewer people willing to take the jab and more resistance to vaccination. This phenomenon is known as vaccine hesitancy.
According to Dr. Athey, the two main issues now leading to vaccine hesitancy and low vaccine uptake are access and trust. She said that even the complicated issue of misinformation can be broken down into having access to the facts and trusting the source enough to believe them. Overall, access issues can be greatly mitigated with the mobile clinic, which takes the shot directly to the people who might not have the time or means to get to the pharmacy. Trust, however, takes time to build. The strategy of the clinicians and students running the mobile van: Make connections, bring the facts, keep showing up. Dr. Athey said, “I do feel like it matters to go out, to show up… It’s not overnight that it’ll get fixed, but being there continuously over time makes a difference.”
Wards 7 and 8 have the lowest vaccine uptake of all of D.C., and given that these are primarily Black communities, this is a matter of health and racial equity. In D.C., Black people make up 56 percent of COVID-19 cases, 71 percent of deaths, and 46 percent of the total population, but they have received only 43 percent of vaccinations.i Continued vaccination efforts like those of the mobile clinic are crucial.
One unique way that Dr. Athey and her team have sought to reach new populations with the COVID-19 vaccine in recent months was the Beat the Streets program, a community outreach event in which they partnered with the Metropolitan Police Department. Outreach events like this allow Dr. Athey, the students, and other clinicians to talk to people in their own communities and help inspire confidence in vaccine safety, an approach that has been most successful with people who are still on the fence about the vaccine. With those who are firmly opposed to the vaccine, talking about its merits often has limitations. However, as vaccine mandates become more and more common among various employers—including the D.C. police, health care institutions, federal government, and many private businesses—there has been an influx of vaccine acceptance. Tapping into this, Dr. Athey and the mobile clinic team recently held a clinic downtown for restaurant employees as new mandates went into effect for their places of work.
The future of the clinic
The mobile clinic will continue to operate throughout the pandemic, providing testing and vaccinations, and building trust with the community. Dr. Athey hopes that the program will continue to grow. She is looking for grants, donors, and foundations to help fund the clinic’s care of the underserved communities in D.C. Furthermore, although UMC has not previously seen children, Dr. Athey is hopeful that the clinic can soon expand its services to include wellness exams, prevention, and vaccinations for kids. She also would like to expand the partnership with the D.C. Housing Authority and begin creating place-based clinics at some of the public housing properties. This would follow the cost-saving “minute clinic” model, utilizing nurse practitioners, nursing students, and resident navigators to continue to build trust and provide access to care.
GW Nursing is proud to be in partnership with Dr. Athey, UMC, the D.C. Housing Authority, and so many others who are working to advance health equity in our community. It is important for nurses and our GW Nursing community to be innovative and committed to equity, continuing to create new models of health care that build trust and increase engagement with disenfranchised communities. The mobile clinic is just one such model. As the most trusted health care professionals, nurses are in a unique position to lead this movement. Dream big and take action!
There is no neutral space between racism and antiracism, according to Ibram X. Kendi, a history professor at Boston University and author of “How to Be an Antiracist” (2019). One is either racist and endorses the idea of racial hierarchy, or one is antiracist and endorses racial equality.
Racism is a public health issue, and a dedicated group of GW Nursing students wants to address and resolve the racism that exists in health care institutions through the formation of a new student group, the Antiracism Nursing Students Alliance (ANSA).
While health care providers, educators, and researchers have focused on reducing health disparities for many years, a primary driver of those disparities—structural racism—has been absent from the conversation.
Last fall, Lynette Flaherty Glover, BSN ’22, and Madison Upshaw, BSN ’21, approached Sandra Davis, Ph.D., DPM, ACNP-BC, GW Nursing’s former assistant dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, with their idea to form a student group. They had already been involved in the White Coats for Black Lives student organization at GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences, but wanted a group that focused on the nursing school.
Dr. Davis put the two in touch with other advocacy-minded students, and the group officially launched last December. “We all came with our ideas of things we want to change in the nursing program and in general to raise awareness of racism in health care,” Mrs. Glover says. “How can we educate the future health care workers on solutions to what they can do to help be an ally?”
“How can we educate the future health care workers on solutions to what they can do to help be an ally?”
– Lynette Flaherty Glover, BSN ’22
The group developed plans to host a speaker series to address historical racism in health care and encourage meaningful discussions. They welcomed two GW faculty members to speak in the spring semester. Nemata Blyden, Ph.D., a professor in the GW Department of History, presented the inaugural lecture in January, celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sherrie Wallington, Ph.D., an assistant professor and health disparities researcher at GW Nursing, discussed her research findings on the social determinants of health and health disparities.
Several of the ANSA founding members have experienced racism because of their ethnicity, while others were recently drawn to advocacy work after the high profile Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. Billy Baron, BSN ’21, admits to having grown up in “a bubble under a rock,” but was deeply affected by the protests after police officers killed George Floyd. “I lived four blocks from the Capitol building when a lot of the riots happened,” Mr. Baron recalls. “I felt very paralyzed, I couldn’t think, I just laid in bed, I didn’t know what was happening to me.”
“I spent the first sessions listening, but near the end of the sessions I was a main speaker, talking and challenging a lot of the faculty members with questions.”
– Billy Baron, BSN ’21
In-person instruction and clinical rotations were canceled due to COVID-19, and Mr. Baron was worried about how his mental health would affect his class work. After confiding in Dr. Davis about his concerns, she invited him to participate in Continuing the Conversation, a series of open forums that took place virtually at the school throughout the summer. “I went to every single one,” Mr. Baron says. “I spent the first sessions listening, but near the end of the sessions I was a main speaker, talking and challenging a lot of the faculty members with questions.”
Mr. Baron channeled his new passion for antiracism and social justice into shaping the goals of ANSA. Fellow founding member Kimberley Hollingsworth, BSN ’21, believes that GW Nursing students want to understand racial biases, and a major goal of ANSA is to shed light on the issue and get more people involved.
“A lot of staff and faculty aren’t very aware of the racial biases that a lot of these [minority] students go through,” Mrs. Hollingsworth says. As an Afro-Latina, she experienced racism in her own work as a patient care technician, phlebotomist, and testing site coordinator. “Based on the color of my skin and being a woman, of course there’s a lot of racism,” Mrs. Hollingsworth says. “I was passed over for promotions just because—there wasn’t a valid reason given. But I see my white counterparts who haven’t had nearly the same [work] experience get moved on.”
Mrs. Hollingsworth has witnessed similar situations in the classroom setting. “I have seen white [students] get graded differently or have certain opportunities that were not awarded to minority students,” she adds. “Everyone should be treated fairly all across the board. I feel as minorities we have to work twice as hard just to succeed.”
Exhorting the school to acknowledge the racism that its own students experience was a driving force behind the interest of Mimi Bui, BSN ’21, in the group. “The nursing school needs to be much more cognizant of the challenges that their nonwhite students face every day—financial challenges, language barriers, all that kind of stuff,” Ms. Bui says.
“The nursing school needs to be much more cognizant of the challenges that their non-white students face every day—financial challenges, language barriers, all that kind of stuff.”
– Mimi Bui, BSN ’21
Addressing systemic racism at large educational institutions can be fraught. Even acknowledging racism as a cause of health disparities has not been widely embraced. When Mrs. Glover was pursuing her associate’s degree at a community college, she was dismayed when her nursing instructors discussed the various chronic conditions from which Black females are at a higher risk of dying. “They never talked about why—in some ways, it was kind of brushed off,” she recalls.
Mrs. Glover is pursuing a nursing degree because she felt discriminated against as a Black female patient. “I wanted to be part of the change I wanted to see in the world,” she explains.
In addition to the challenge of dismantling systemic racism, the students of ANSA struggle with simply finding the capacity to devote to the group on top of their coursework and personal obligations. The Accelerated B.S.N. program spans just 15 months, a short amount of time to meaningfully engage in an extracurricular organization.
The founding members are working with GW Nursing faculty and staff to help advance ANSA’s mission as students cycle in and out of the school. “Having people like myself and others on this board who can actually speak up about [antiracism], and be able to go out there and advocate, that’s what I hope GW Nursing will continue when I leave the school,” Ms. Hollingsworth says.
Founding Members
Watch video introductions directly from ANSA’s founding members to learn why they’re part of the Alliance.
Contact ANSA
Students interested in ANSA can email gwsonansa@gmail.com to learn about upcoming meetings and events
GW Nursing is teaming with accomplished, well-respected faculty who are experts in their fields, and each year the awards and honors roll in, rewarding them for their excellent work.
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Dr. Linda Cassar received AWHONN Excellence in Education (Scholarly) Award.
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Dr. Adriana Glenn received the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation grant award in the amount of $49,995 for her proposal: A Nurse-Led Approach to Testing and Adapting a Telehealth Guide for E-Empathy in Goals of Care Conversations for African American/Black Kidney Patients, submitted to the Hillman Emergent Innovation: Serious Illness and End of Life Program (HSEI) 2021.
Dr. Kathleen Griffith received the 2021 Katzen Cancer Research Micro Grant Award ($4,865.00) for her research entitled, “A Feasibility Study of Sarcopenia and Treatment Toxicity in Patients with Co-Occurring Cancer and HIV”. Co-investigators include her colleagues in GW Cancer Center Hematology-Oncology, Faysal Haroun, MD and Khristine Arrieta, DNP, CRNP-F.
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Dr. Ellen Kurtzman is appointed as the Vice Chair of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Nursing Issues (IRGNI) by AcademyHealth. The appointment is a 2-year term starting September 1 (2021). IRGNI is one of several Interest Groups (IGs) of AcademyHealth – IGs are groups of members that convene on specialized topics to facilitate interaction and create opportunities to exchange knowledge, disseminate research findings, inform policy and clinical decision-making, build research skills, and network.
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Dr. Daisy Le has been selected to receive an American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Student and Early Career Investigator Scholarship (SECIS).
Dr. Daisy Le received NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) award in the amount of $50,000 per year for 2 years for her project title: Understanding and Intervening on Multi-Level and Contextual Factors Associated with Cancer-Related Health Disparities.
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Dr. Tony Yang received award of $1 million for Local Community-Based Workforce To Increase COVID-19 Vaccine Access project from Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). July 27, 2021.
Our faculty have presented at conferences, meetings and webinars throughout the world and online on topics ranging from COVID-19 to early literacy to nursing leadership and more.
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Cox, C.W., Wiersma, G., McNelis, A., Tebbenhoff, B., Schumann, M.J.,& Maring, J. (2021, September). Success in BSN Degree Completion: Military Student Nurses with Medical Experience. Poster presentation at the National League for Nursing Education Summit, National Harbor, MD. September 23-25, 2021.
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Darcy-Mahoney, A. (September 2021). Observational Methods to Evaluate Stability and Stress Responses to Nursing Care in Early Premature Infants. Poster presentation at the Academy of Neonatal Nursing Conference: National Neonatal/Mother Baby/Advanced Practice Nurses Conference.September 8-11, 2021. Chicago, IL
Drenkard, K. (April 2021). Disruptive technologies and strategies used with implications for healthcare professionals on education and practice. Session moderator at the 2021 GW Digital Health Summit. April 15, 2021 (virtual)
Drenkard, K. (May 2021). Leadership Challenges and Opportunities. Presentation at the Meritus Health System. Frederick MD. May 2021.
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Emard, Esther (June 2021). Embedding Healthcare Quality Competencies into Nursing Academic Programs. Presentation atthe QSEN International Forum. June 2, 2021. (virtual)
Emard, E. (September 2021). Stories from the Healthcare Quality Trenches: A Fireside Chat with the NAHQ Board of Directors. Part of a Board presentation at the Annual NAHQ Next conference, September 13-15. Virtual conference
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Fey, M. (September 2021). Resilience Through Connection. Keynote address at the National League for Nursing Education Summit, Washington, D. C. September 23-25, 2021.
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Kesten, K., Conrad, D.(August 2021). A Global Team Approach to Strengthen the Reach and Impact of Advanced Practice Nurses, presentation at the Eleventh International Council of Nurses’ NP/ APN Network Conference, August 29-September 4
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Leslie, Mayri S. (March 2021). Umbillical Cord Management and Placental Transfusion. Presentation at Kaiser Permanente, Los Angeles
Leslie, Mayri S. (July 2021). Preeclampsia Survivor’s Perceptions of Risk for Future Cardiovascular Disease. Presentation at SRI International. July 7, 2021. (virtual)
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Ricciardi, R. (September 2021). Nursing’s Enduring Contributions Amidst Global Health Challenges. Presentation at the 4th Sigma Asia Region Conference. Silliman University, Phillipines. September 8, 2021. Virtual conference
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Walsh, J.M., Stevens, K.E., Choma, E.G., & Clarke, J.A. (September 2021) Exploring Implicit Bias in Pediatric Nursing Students. Poster presentation at the National League for Nursing Education Summit, Washington, D. C. September 23-25, 2021.
Take a look at the latest scholarly publications from GW Nursing faculty. From articles to books to peer-reviewed journals, our faculty are sharing their expertise.
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Alshawish, I., El-Banna, M.,& Alrimawi, I. (2021). Comparison of Blended Versus Traditional Classrooms among Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Quasi-Experimental Study. Nurse Education Today. Available Online. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2021.105049
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Covelli, A.,Mullan, F., Fair, M., Meiri, A., Zeidan, A., O’Donnell, S., & Darcy-Mahoney, A. (2021). Beyond Flexner: A novel framework to implement the social mission of medical education. Education in the Health Professions, 4(2), 50.
Jeffries, P., Cox, C., Dawn, K., Drenkard, K., Slaven-Lee, P., Tanner, J., & Wiersma, G. (2021). “Obtaining clinical hours for students during the pandemic: Creative solutions.” Virginia Nurses Today, 29(1), 1, 20 -21.
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Drenkard, K., Sakallaris, B., Deyo, P., Abdillahi, S., & Hahn, H. (2021). University COVID -19 Surveillance Testing Center: Challenges and Opportunities for Schools of Nursing. Journal of Professional Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2021.07.004
Turkel, M., Smith, Marlaine, Tappen, R., Hansell, P. Fawcett, J., Alanbry, T., Drenkard, K.(Accepted for publication: In print November 2021): Nursing Theory Guiding Nursing Practice: A Mixed Method Study. Journal of Nursing Administration, Nov 21
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Kesten, K. S., & El-Banna, M. M. (2020). Facilitators, barriers, benefits, and funding to implement postgraduate nurse practitioner residency/fellowship programs. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 1. https://doi.org/10.1097/jxx.0000000000000412
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The GW School of Nursing’s Center for Aging, Health and Humanities (CAHH) is on a mission: to make the world more age-friendly and livable for people throughout their span of life, by cultivating partnerships and generating innovative ideas.
The term “age-friendly” was first used by the World Health Organization in 2002 and was part of a strategy to improve the inclusion of older adults in cities and communitiesi. The age-friendly movement seeks to improve the economic, physical, and social environments through the “8 domains of livability”: housing; outdoor spaces and buildings; transportation; communication and information; civic participation and employment; respect and inclusion; health services and community supports; and social participationii.
Melissa Batchelor, Ph.D., RN-BC, FNP-BC, FGSA, FAAN, director of the CAHH, said that “age-friendly initiatives work to reduce the impact of ageism in society.” Ageism is “largely absent from the national dialogue on equity and inclusion,” she said, but it can “accelerate negative health outcomes for people,” especially at the intersection of racism and sexism. Dr. Batchelor said it is therefore a “national imperative to start and amplify the conversation about becoming more age-friendly.”
Dr. Batchelor, director of CAHH
Additionally, creating an age-friendly world should be of interest to people of all ages because “what we do now to make our communities good places to grow up and grow old will yield returns not only for today’s elders but also tomorrow’s—that is, for all of us.”iii After all, there’s one thing about aging— “everyone’s doing it.”
The CAHH has been involved with age-friendly initiatives since 2019 when it co-hosted, with the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement, a seminar featuring Dr. Terry Fulmer, in which she discussed the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative.
Since 2019, the CAHH has received three consecutive years of University Seminar Series grant funding, allowing it to host multiple age-friendly talks focused on four core areas: age-friendly businesses, health systems, arts and creativity, and long-term care workforce.
On May 4 and 5, 2021, the CAHH hosted the inaugural Age-Friendly Ecosystem Summit in conjunction with its Age-Friendly regional municipality partners: Age-Friendly Alexandria, Arlington, D.C., City of Hyattsville, and Montgomery County. This summit was the first of its kind: a convening of age-friendly regional leaders designed to raise awareness of national age-friendly initiatives, inspire cross-collaboration, and learn about best practices from each of these age-friendly partners and regional thought leaders.
Figure 1: Adapted from: Fulmer, T., Patel, P., Levy, N., Mate, K., Berman, A., Pelton, L., Beard, J., Kalache, A., & Auerbach, J. (2020). Moving Toward a Global Age‐Friendly Ecosystem. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 68(9), 1936-1940. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.16675
On day one, regional leaders presented LIVE “TED Talks” to share best practices, frameworks, and resources to advance an age-friendly ecosystem. On day two, local municipal leaders shared best practices and exemplary case studies of age-friendly initiatives. The group’s efforts were guided by a Venn diagram that depicts how various societal sectors are distinct while also connected, and are equally important in creating a wholly age-friendly society.
All of the money raised from this event helped to fund the Gene Cohen Research Award. Named after the CAHH’s founder and a pioneer in creative aging, this new scholarship is intended to support GW students to conduct interprofessional research on the impact of the arts and humanities on the health and well-being of older adults and persons with dementia.
Interested in the work of this summit or in supporting the Gene Cohen Research Award? Click the link below to purchase the recorded summit.
The summit and this type of collaboration is important, especially in an interconnected region like the greater Washington, D.C., area. It provided an opportunity for the age-friendly municipalities to step out of their silos, share best practices, expand partnerships, and replicate good ideas. “This type of sharing, replication, and lending of expertise only improves the lives of all residents in this region—and serves as a national model for the power of collective age-friendly initiatives,” said Dr. Batchelor. The hope is for this summit model to be replicated in other regions and to see more age-friendly communities created and strengthened.
When asked about the way in which the partnership between GW and the age-friendly municipalities has made a difference, Marci LeFevre, one of the CAHH’s partners and the age-friendly program lead for the City of Hyattsville, Maryland, said:
“By partnering with one another, we’re accelerating the discovery and exploration of promising policies, programs, and practices implemented by age-friendly programs elsewhere that can be replicated in our own municipalities. This is invaluable as the DMV region has a wealth of age-friendly resources, but they’re not necessarily widely known or promoted within and beyond our respective jurisdictions… By spotlighting and seeking ways to address these trends, such as the growing number of older adults experiencing homelessness in the DMV region, we can help identify and foster needed systems-level changes within and beyond our municipalities.”
The grant was used to support the CAHH’s event on October 27, 2021, the Age-Friendly Social Innovation Challenge. This event brought together a diverse, intergenerational group—including students, older adults, and working professionals—to design innovative strategies for building age-friendly infrastructures. The CAHH also used this as an opportunity to establish an Age-Friendly Regional Network for the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The CAHH partnered with GW Nashman Center, Georgetown University, and the age-friendly regional municipalities, and looks forward to building even more partnerships.
When she applied to teach at the George Washington University, Crystel Farina, Ph.D.(c), RN, CNE, CHSE, knew very little about the School of Nursing or the university. “I applied solely because the dean was Pamela Jeffries,” said Ms. Farina, director of simulation and experiential learning.
Ms. Farina aiding students during on campus PPE fitting
A doctoral candidate at Notre Dame of Maryland University, Ms. Farina joined the Nursing School in August 2017. She had been aware of Dr. Jeffries, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH, and her work on simulation since 2004, when Ms. Farina was teaching at Chesapeake College in Maryland and grew interested in simulation and nursing education.
“She was the one in all the articles who was teaching me how to actually do simulations,” Ms. Farina said of Dr. Jeffries, whom she first met in 2015 at the National League for Nursing’s Leadership Development for Simulation Educators. Dr. Jeffries was one of the “giants of simulation,” who formed a faculty group leading the program.
“It was like seeing a rockstar,” she said. “Oh my gosh, it’s her!”
Dr. Jeffries, who recently stepped down as dean at the School of Nursing—a role she held from 2015 to 2021—to become dean of Vanderbilt University’s nursing school, turned out to be “very down to earth, very relaxed, and very warm and fuzzy,” Ms. Farina recalled.
“I applied solely because the dean was Pamela Jeffries. She was the one in all the articles who was teaching me how to actually do simulations.”
– Ms. Farina
“Once I got over the awe of sitting with the godmother of simulation, it was very easy to have a conversation and talk about what we were doing at the college level, what we needed to do for nurse practitioners, and simulation in health care education,” Ms. Farina said.
This characterization of Dr. Jeffries as a down-to-earth, amicable rockstar is a common refrain among those who know and have worked with her. And the dean’s departure to Nashville, Tenn., comes amid a larger transitional time at the school and at GW.
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many best-laid plans. From an academic and administrative perspective, the School of Nursing was lucky to have put certain programs and processes in place prior to the pandemic, which helped mitigate some remote- and digital-only growing pains.
Pamela Slaven-Lee, D.N.P., FNP-C, FAANP, CHSE, senior associate dean for academic affairs and clinical associate professor, now serves as interim dean of the School of Nursing. GW recently announced that Mark Wrighton, chancellor emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis, will begin serving as interim president in January and will fill that role for up to a year and a half.The School of Nursing was about two-thirds of the way into its strategic plan when the pandemic began, requiring that in-person activities shut down in mid-March 2020. Despite this hurdle, the faculty and staff were able to fulfill the goals of that plan. And, although her departure was eminent, Dr. Jeffries saw to it that the next strategic plan was in place before she left. As she and her colleagues reflect on her legacy and vast achievements at GW, they see a bright future for the school, which has already earned national accolades that are more typical of much older and more mature schools.
The View from ‘Athens of the South’
Reached by video chat in Nashville, Dr. Jeffries said she hopes people will look back on her GW legacy as six years of bringing the school to another level. “We grew—maybe from adolescence to young adulthood,” she said.
Dr. Jeffries is very proud of starting GW’s doctoral nursing program and building up the breadth and depth of the school’s research base. “It still needs to grow more, but the quantity and quality of our research efforts have definitely scaled up,” she said. She also takes pride in the school’s No. 22 ranking for nursing graduate education by U.S. News & World Report and successful school-wide health policy branding.
Joe Velez, GW Nursing’s Executive Director of Operations, speaking with crew at remodel project
Six years ago, when Dr. Jeffries came to GW—after serving as vice provost for digital initiatives at Johns Hopkins University, and before that as an associate dean at Hopkins and at Indiana University Bloomington—her priorities were to build upon the foundation her predecessor, Jean Johnson, established as founding dean some five years prior. Having inherited high-quality programs, Dr. Jeffries wanted to take the school to the next level.
“I had an analogy of a three-story house. Dr. Johnson built the first floor. I had the second floor, which continued to build on our reputable programs,” Dr. Jeffries said. “To build the research base on the third level, I wanted to start a Ph.D. program and to diversify revenue, because we were very tied to tuition dollars and enrollment numbers.”
Dr. Jeffries started a professional development office called Ventures, Initiatives and Partnerships (VIP), and she sought to improve the school’s national rankings. She aimed in five years to move the school into the top 25 graduate programs in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. (It previously ranked No. 58.) It took six years, but the school bested that goal by three slots.
“I had an analogy of a three-story house. Dr. Johnson built the first floor. I had the second floor, which continued to build on our reputable programs,”
– Dr. Jeffries
In the 2022 U.S. News rankings (the Georgetown-based publication ranks schools based on the prior year’s data, which can sound like predicting the future), the Nursing School is also tied for No. 28 in the category of “Best Nursing Schools: Doctor of Nursing Practice” with Oregon Health and Science University; University of California, San Francisco; University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; and Washington State University.
In the U.S. News specialty nursing school rankings, the GW School of Nursing is No. 8 in “Best Master’s Nurse Practitioner: Family,” and is tied for No. 6 in “Best Master’s Nursing Administration” with University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And in the U.S. News online nursing program rankings, GW is No. 2 for “Best Online Master’s Nursing Programs for Veterans,”No. 3 for “Best Online Master’s Nursing Administration Programs,”No. 7 for “Best Online Master’s Nursing Programs (tied with University of Nevada, Las Vegas), and No. 7 for “Best Online Family Nurse Practitioner Master’s Programs.”
Creating a doctoral program to help train nursing scientists was necessary to become a top-tier school, according to Dr. Jeffries, who also is proud of starting the school’s Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement. The latter draws upon the school’s location in the nation’s capital.
“I don’t think I would have changed anything if I could have read the tea leaves and known COVID was going to hit in March 2020,” Dr. Jeffries says. “In fact, we actually prepared ourselves not knowing it was happening.”
Pivoting Online
Prior to March 2020, the Nursing School had already begun assembling the necessary personnel to strengthen its creation and delivery of online programming. Dr. Jeffries hired e-learning specialists, instructional designers, videographers, a graphic designer, and a director of online learning and technology.
“I’m glad that was done, because that served us well in COVID,” she said. “We already had online education going at GW Nursing, but I put more resources and support into building a team.”
She also brought on a team to help run the expanded simulation center on the Ashburn, Va., campus, home to a state-of-the-art Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) center. “They had to pivot during COVID to produce and really facilitate faculty with the virtual simulations,” Dr. Jeffries said. And after lockdowns ended, that team facilitated safe in-person lab simulations.
Associate Professor Dr. Karen Whitt monitoring OSCEs at VSTC simulation lab
During the pandemic, Dr. Jeffries would wake up each morning and ask herself what she needed to get through the day.
“I built community with our faculty, staff, and students,” she said. There were weekly town hall meetings for nearly 70 weeks, and Dr. Jeffries helped staff leaders, who had never managed people remotely, and professors, who could not see their students in person, navigate the new normal.
“We did keep community together,” she said, noting the school’s instructional continuity in particular. “Our students graduated on time for the most part.”
“Some of us thought—I was one—we could come back in three or four weeks,” she said of the beginning of the pandemic. “I stayed very focused to get through. I always had to hold it together. Someone has to be the leader.”
Looking forward, Dr. Jeffries notes that telehealth is poised to be a game changer for the profession, and she expects the pivot online will continue even after the pandemic is in the rearview mirror. There is a need for telehealth competencies and full integration into curricula, she said, and nursing schools ought to teach students to assess patients via digital platforms, such as Zoom. Patients are also increasingly tracking their own health data, something nurses should take advantage of.
“We’ve got to be mindful of that,” Dr. Jeffries said.
She looks forward to continuing to see the School of Nursing’s programs flourish, as well as new programs emerge. She expects the healthcare landscape to continue to change, and thinks public health is a priority, particularly the focus on health equity that COVID exposed, as outlined in the National Academy of Medicine’s report “The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity.”
“I see the next five years as a little different. Right now we are transitioning in COVID, but we are still in COVID. But our antennas are up for different things,” she said. “I think we’ve learned we can do things differently.”
Big Shoes to Fill
Dr. Slaven-Lee, now interim dean, came to GW two months before Dr. Jeffries did in 2015. She was excited to join a young school, about five years old, and the opportunities that its youth presented. Dr. Slaven-Lee served previously in a leadership role at Georgetown University and looked forward to returning to teaching. That was not in the cards, however.
“Dr. Jeffries developed our matrix structure with two communities and academic programs, and made a lot of infrastructure changes. With that, it opened up a lot of leadership opportunities,” Dr. Slaven-Lee said. “I came here saying, ‘I want to go back to teaching and not so much leadership.’ As is often the case, I ended up back in a leadership role.
Interim Dean Slaven-Lee (center), Patsy Deyo and Assistant Professor Dr. Maggie Venzke meet with Va. Del. David Reid at GW Nursing-run COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic.
”Dr. Slaven-Lee worked closely with Dr. Jeffries on developing the simulation program, which “became a signature part of our academic programs,” and building the academic affairs unit. “Really further developing all the things that you do as your school continues to mature—evaluation plans, standardizing how you evaluate your academic programs, master plans of evaluation, standardizing how you evaluate each course, clinical placement models, all those sorts of things,”she said.
In the past six years, Dr. Slaven-Lee has seen GW’s reputation soar and has noticed changes in the applicant pool. She does not think anyone else applied for the same job she did in 2015, but now, “The caliber of the candidates that we see trying to come to GW and join our faculty community is outstanding.”
Part of that, she thinks, is the national recognition the school has received in rankings. “Considering how young the school is—we’re 11 years old—that’s absolutely remarkable that we’ve been able to accomplish that,” she said.
Since becoming interim dean on July 1, Dr. Slaven-Lee has drawn on what she learned from working with Dr. Jeffries, whom she called “a great mentor.” She also is very focused on the school’s strategic plan.“
The strategy I have in my mind is to stay focused on the school. Stay focused on our students, faculty, staff, and strategic plan,” she said. She is also focused on enhancing the curriculum with an eye toward diversity, equity, and inclusion, she said, as well as the “Future of Nursing”report.
“The caliber of the candidates that we see trying to come to GW and join our faculty community is outstanding.”
– Dr. Slaven-Lee
“It’s not just, ‘Hold everything steady until a new dean comes.’ It’s ‘Continue on the upward trajectory.’ Holding things steady would be a disservice to the school. We’ve got to keep things moving upwards,” she said. “I’d be derelict in my duty if I just tried to hold things steady. When you’re ranked 22, that takes some work. You can’t just hold steady. You’ll fall backwards.”
Dr. Slaven-Lee expects the school’s rankings to continue to improve, and like Dr. Jeffries, she anticipates that there will be online and hybrid programming and teaching in the future. She also echoed Dr. Jeffries’ thinking about the school’s unique role in the heart of Washington, D.C.,and in northern Virginia.
“We want very much to brand and distinguish ourselves as the school of nursing that’s about health policy,” she said, noting that most GW School of Nursing researchers focus on health disparities and inequities.
“The juncture where it all starts coming together is the research informing the policy informing the practice. It’s not something we are trying to be. It’s something we are actually becoming,” she said. “We want to leverage our position in the nation’s capital.” The school also developed a dual Master of Science in Nursing and Master of Public Health degree, which matches renewed interest in that intersection.
She aims, she said, to fill Dr. Jeffries’ big shoes.“Dean Jeffries is an incredible leader. She is very well known for being a great communicator. She always had a vision,” Dr. Slaven-Lee said. “She did so much in the just six years she was here.”
The Power of Simulations
Dr. Slaven-Lee, Dr. Jeffries, and Ms. Farina—the director of simulation and experiential learning, who chose to apply to work at GW because of Dr. Jeffries—all point to simulation as one of the areas of greatest change at the School of Nursing in the past five years.
Dr. Slaven-Lee said it was “absolutely pivotal for the development of our programs” to require all faculty to be trained in best practices for simulations. “Simulation is a pedagogy that is incredibly powerful. By virtue of that, if it’s used inappropriately, it can have negative impacts on the students’ evaluation and development,” she said.
Simulation training on campus is also a signature event for the school and for students. “These are big events. That’s how they know the campus. It’s about developing alumni. We’re known in the community for being expert simulationists,” she said. And many professional societies and vendors come to GW for talks on best practice simulation.
GW Nursing students in virtual reality simulation room.
“It’s not uncommon to see a whole panel of GW faculty talking about simulation,” Dr. Slaven-Lee said.
Ms. Farina’s tenure at GW has seen sustained growth in the school, she said. When she began working at the school, there was summer enrollment for the first time; there had only been spring and fall terms previously. And some of the conferences and other events that provided the most momentum in pushing the school forward centered on simulation.
Much of that success is owed to Dr. Jeffries, who played an essential role in securing funding for renovations of the simulation center and for expanding its offerings.
“She was really supportive in ensuring that I had the authority to request that all faculty had a standard of education for simulation before they came and facilitated simulation experiences,” Ms. Farina said. She noted that Dr. Jeffries was also involved in creating a massive open online course (MOOC), in which more than11,000 learners have enrolled and participated.
GW Nursing School students now do a lot of virtual and face-to-face simulations, and the curriculum is aligned with didactic content, skills labs, and simulations.“It’s all lined up that way so that they can apply everything they learned each week to providing simulated patient care,” she said. “They sit in lectures; then they learn a few skills; and then they are able to apply all that knowledge to providing care for that simulated patient.”
Ms. Farina hopes the nursing program continues to expand and thinks the school has a shot at top 10 in the U.S. News rankings. She also expects the school to become, in the next two years, one of 2,000 accredited by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. “It shows that our simulation is high fidelity, high quality,” she said of that accreditation.
Collaborative Culture
Majeda El-Banna, Ph.D., RN, CNE, ANEF, had previously taught at several nursing programs, large and small, stateside and abroad—including Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, where she was dean of the School of Nursing—before arriving at GW in 2013. She began as adjunct professor and is now associate professor, chair of acute and chronic care faculty community, and director of the Registered Nurse to Bachelor/Master of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN) program.
“GW really attracted me with the mission and vision,” she said. And when she started teaching at the school eight years ago, “I said, Oh my goodness!This is the place where I want to be.” She has been extremely happy at GW since.
Dr. Majeda El-Banna speaking to a classroom of Accelerated B.S.N. students.
Where some of her colleagues may think the School of Nursing’s growth has been meteoric, Dr. El-Banna, who has taught in nursing programs for more than 20 years, was part of one school that tripled in size in two years. That was a little more of a dramatic pace than she has seen at GW.
Still, when she first arrived on campus, the nursing program was small enough that communication could occur in a more ad hoc fashion. As the school grew, there needed to be more formalized processes.
She credits Dr. Jeffries’ establishment of the Ph.D. program as a very significant and difficult feat, and the faculty communities that Dr. Jeffries pioneered—the school’s take on departments—have facilitated growth, cooperation, and mentorship. When Dr. El-Banna compares Dr. Jeffries’ approach to communication between faculty and staff, spread across the Foggy Bottom and Virginia campuses and many others remote across the country, to those she has observed at other schools, she thinks what the School of Nursing has achieved is remarkable in this regard.
During Dr. Jeffries’ tenure, faculty was encouraged to collaborate on research, and research funding increased. A buddy system paired new hires in their first year with seasoned colleagues who helped them acclimate to GW. And the dean also welcomed faculty, staff, and students to her home regularly, including for holiday parties.
“GW really attracted me with the mission and vision. I said, Oh my goodness! This is the place where I want to be.”
– Dr. El-Banna
“How did she have the time to hold so many social events in her house?” Dr. El-Banna wondered. “That is different from other schools.”
The “culture of collaboration” at the School of Nursing is one of the things that attracted Dr. El-Banna initially, and which has kept her happily at the school. Dr. Jeffries would ask faculty members where they saw themselves in a few years, and once she knew their plans, would provide guidance on necessary future steps. She would also keep her eyes and ears open for future opportunities, which she would share with faculty.
“I don’t know how she remembers all the things about all the faculty,” Dr. El-Banna said. “It’s amazing.”
When she reflected more on the changes she has seen at GW during Dr. Jeffries’ tenure, and the culture she foresees continuing, Dr. El-Banna reached for an affable metaphor. “It feels more like a family,” she said.
A George Washington University School of Nursing researcher received $1 million in federal support for a new initiative to expand and evaluate COVID-19 vaccine access to increase vaccination rates among communities in the Washington, D.C., region that have been disproportionately harmed by the pandemic.
Working with community partners, Y. Tony Yang, the endowed professor in health policy and executive director of the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement, will target racial and ethnic minority groups, including African, Hispanic and Asian communities, living in east and southeast Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Southern Maryland.
