Current Doctoral Students • Doctoral Student Organization • Penn Nursing

DSO Students

Stephanie Acquaye

Stephanie Acquaye is in her first year of the Hillman Scholars Program. Her research interests involve the delivery of and access to health care services across the perinatal period. Stephanie has a particular interest in understanding and addressing health disparities related to breastfeeding and is interested in exploring the ways in which diverse, interprofessional care can abate some of these disparities.
Helena Addison, MSN, RN

Helena Addison, MSN, RN is interested in advancing knowledge on how incarceration history impacts mental health symptoms, health-related quality of life, health-seeking behaviors, and access to and engagement in mental healthcare among formerly incarcerated Black men.
Lucy Andersen, RN, BSN

Lucy’s goal is to research how nursing care can improve quality of life and symptoms for patients who are undergoing CAR – T cell therapy and other new immunotherapy treatments. She is interested in understanding long-term symptom burden and investigating how social determinants of health influence quality of life and patient outcomes for this patient population.
Ravenne Aponte, BA, RN, BSN

Ravenne Aponte is a doctoral student in the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing and a Fontaine Fellow. She hopes to specifically focus her research on the contributions of Black nurses and development of community health organizations and initiatives in an effort to address health inequities.
Jessie Axsom, BS, BSN

Jessie is a PhD student interested in how epigenetics might contribute to cardiometabolic adaptations to exercise and using basic science approaches to explore exercise metabolism.
Kayla Baker, MSN, RN

Kayla’s current research interest are on the nursing role of research and practice around psychedelics substances, such as psilocybin. Specifically, how psilocybin research on palliative care patient populations may help refine measures of spirituality in serious illness care. Additionally, Kayla is interested in how nursing knowledge can help define best practices around the ethics of psychedelic research and therapeutic usage.
Stacey L. Bevan, BS, BSN, RN

Stacey Bevan is a nurse researcher who integrates clinical practice with interdisciplinary theory and methods to promote equitable developmental-behavioral healthcare for children.
Katherine Buhikire, DNP

Katie Buhikire is a PhD candidate at Penn Nursing with the Penn Injury Science Center and a Surgical Nurse Practitioner at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Inspired by her previous work in Africa and the Middle East, Katie’s research interests include pediatric injury (prevention, recovery and outcomes), access to surgical care in low and middle income countries, and advancing nursing education and training globally.
Kiera Carty, BSN, RN

Kiera Carty is a PhD student interested in public health, mental health and how social determinants dictate health outcomes in vulnerable populations. She is a Presidential and Fontaine Fellow.
Rashida Charles, BA, MSN

Rashida Charles is a predoctoral student at Penn Nursing. Her research focuses on at-home physical activity as a form of intervention and prevention for hypertension for low-income Black men.
Hannah Cho, MSN, RN, ACHPN

Her research interests are palliative care and gerontology. She wants to develop effective community-based palliative care delivery methods for older adults with serious illnesses such as dementia.
Caitlin “Cat” Clason, BA, BSN, MSN

Cat’s research interests are healthcare issues and policies that impact female service members and veterans. This includes healthcare access, disparity of care, reproductive health-related issues and the health challenges of this unique demographic.
Ashley Cooper, BA, BSN, MSN, WHNP, ANP-C

Ashley’s research uses an intersectional approach to examine the relationships between stigma and social determinants of health, and their influence on obesity and related conditions for Black women in the US.
Ying Dai, MSN

Ying is interested in the antecedents of child poor sleep health, the short- and long-term impact of poor sleep on child development and health outcome, and interventions to improve child sleep health outcome.
Maura Dougherty, RN, BSN, MSN, CRNA

Maura Dougherty is a predoctoral fellow in the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research. Maura’s research interests include health policy in relation to advanced practice nurses and the impact of nursing on patient outcomes.
Lauren Fisher, BA, BSN

Lauren Fisher is a predoctoral student in the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health. Lauren is interested in exploring how uncertainty around prognosis of a neurodegenerative disease diagnosis affects decision making and well-being in both patients and their care partners.
Kierra Foley, BA, MA

Kierra is a predoctoral student and a Hillman Scholar in Nursing Innovation. Kierra is broadly interested in the health and wellness of sexual and gender minority elders, and she is currently focusing on the relationship between health and housing access in this population.
Anessa Foxwell, BA, MS, MSN

Anessa Foxwell is a predoctoral student and fellow in the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health. She is interested in understanding clinician distress and exploring its implications for both clinicians and patients.
Jennifer Gil, MSN, RN

Jennifer Gil, MSN, RN is a first-year PhD student, Penn Presidential Fellow, and Predoctoral Fellow in the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research. Utilizing health services research, Jennifer’s research aims to understand the factors that impact nurse work environments and throughput metrics in the emergency department.
Brooke Goodspeed, BA, BS, BSN, MSN

Brooke Goodspeed is a predoctoral student at Penn Nursing. Inspired by her role as a parent advocate and entrepreneur in the neurodiversity space, Ms. Goodspeed aims to understand the role of employment status on health outcomes among transition-age individuals on the autism spectrum.
Christin Iroegbu, MS, RN

Christin’s research investigates how structural inequities, such as provider communication style, impacts patient awareness and understanding of their chronic kidney disease.
Nina Juntereal, BSN, RN

Nina Juntereal is a PhD candidate in Nursing and Hillman Scholar at Penn. Her research interests focus infant feeding and lactation related outcomes among diverse childbearing families and critically-ill infants.
Amy Ketcham, BSN

Amy Ketcham is a pre-doctoral fellow in the NewCourtland Center for Health and Transitions at Penn Nursing. Amy’s research interests include heart failure symptom science, social support and inflammation.
Tarik Khan, MSN, RN, FNP-BC

Tarik S. Khan is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Tarik’s research involves vulnerable populations, including persons experiencing homelessness and family caregivers.
Christine Langston, BSN

Christine Langston is a predoctoral student in the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research Penn and a Hillman Scholar in Nursing Innovation. Christine’s goal is to study the systemic factors that create and maintain these inequities in order to develop policies that will reduce health inequities.
Marion Leary, MSN, MPH

Marion Leary is a part-time PhD student and the Director of Innovation at Penn Nursing. Her research is focused on developing innovative strategies to improve bystander response and CPR training for sudden cardiac arrest.
Priscilla (Xiaoxuan) Liu, BSN, RN

Priscilla (Xiaoxuan) Liu is passionate about community-based primary health promotion and adolescent mental health wellbeing. While there are many school-based interventions, few involve parents in the intervention. As a result, Priscilla is interested in community-based family intervention as a means of promoting adolescent mental health.
Aleigha Mason BSN, RN
Austin Matus, BSN

Austin Matus is a PhD student in the Biobehavioral Health Sciences Department. He is interested in understanding hypoglycemia symptom perception in individuals with long-standing type-1 diabetes complicated by hypoglycemia unawareness.
Alexandra Maye, MSN, RN

Alexandra is a predoctoral student at University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and T32 fellow in the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR). Realizing the importance of personal holistic wellness to her own practice as a nurse, Alexandra aims to improve the overall nursing work environment through research that focuses on decreasing burnout, increasing retention, and increasing job satisfaction among nurses.
Molly McHugh, BSN, RN

Molly McHugh is a predoctoral student at Penn Nursing in the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health. She is interested in researching community-based palliative care interventions in a chronically-ill, older adult population.
Brianna Morgan, BA, BSN, MSN

Brianna Morgan is a predoctoral student in the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health. Brianna’s research interest is strengths-based care for people living with serious illnesses, like mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
Ellen Munsterman, MSN, APRN, AGCNS-BC

Ellen is a predoctoral student at Penn Nursing in the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health. Her research interests are the hospital experiences of older adults living with dementia.
Shayleigh Dickson Page, MSN, BA, BSN, RN

Shayleigh Dickson Page is a predoctoral student at Penn Nursing. Her research interests are focused on supporting families of children with autism spectrum disorder in managing feeding difficulties and other behavioral concerns.
Claire Regan, DNP, CRNP, AGPCNP-BC-

Claire is a nurse practitioner passionate about geriatrics and improving the quality of life of older adults. I am looking forward to my PhD journey and pursuing research within this arena.
Andre Rosario, BSN, RN-BC

Andre Rosario is a PhD student at Penn Nursing. He studies the exploitation of immigrant nurses and the history of nursing.
Kathleen E. Fitzpatrick Rosenbaum, BS, BSN, RN

Kathleen E. Fitzpatrick Rosenbaum is a predoctoral fellow in the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research. Utilizing health services research, her goal is to leverage nursing and address safety, compassion, quality, cost-effectiveness, and equity for each other.
Elaine Sang

Elaine is interested in how informatics and telehealth could be used to chronic disease outcomes.
Courtney Sexton, MS, CPNP-PC, CLC

Courtney is a predoctoral student at Penn Nursing. Courtney is interested in studying strategies to improve pediatric obesity and breastfeeding outcomes.
Kathy Sliwinski, BSN, RN

Kathy is interested in health services research with a focus on language barriers in the health care setting.