Current Doctoral Students • Doctoral Student Organization • Penn Nursing

DSO Students

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.
Charisse Ahmed, BS, BSN

Charisse Ahmed is a pre-doctoral student at Penn Nursing, a Hillman Scholar, and a Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) nurse fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Charisse’s research interests are the implementation of evidence-based interventions to improve HIV treatment adherence and mental health outcomes among African adolescents, and reducing HIV/STI risks among disenfranchised/minority youth.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yeji Hwang, MSN, RN

Yeji Hwang is a predoctoral student at Penn Nursing. She is interested in identifying risk factors for anxiety in persons living with dementia, particularly how social factors such as social isolation can lead to anxiety in this population.
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.
Erin Kennedy, BSN

Erin is a predoctoral fellow in the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health and a Hillman Scholar in Nursing Innovation. Erin’s research focuses on health informatics and information technology that supports healthcare providers’ discharge planning efforts and reduces readmissions for at-risk older adults.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Bruno Saconi, MSN, BSN

Bruno Saconi is a predoctoral student and a dual master’s degree student in statistics at Wharton. His research interests include sleep and chronic pain symptom management, with a focus on the use of behavioral treatments in adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) comorbid with chronic pain.
Rachel A. Solomon, BSN, RN

Rachel Solomon is a predoctoral student at Penn Nursing. Rachel is interested in the intersection of family-centered care, PICU and NICU outcomes and adult mental health.
Kailee Steger, MS, BSN

Kailee Steger is a predoctoral student at Penn Nursing. Inspired by her work as a critical care nurse and her past History degree, Kailee’s research interests are in the History of Nursing and infectious disease response.
Laura Wallace, BSN, MSN

Laura Wallace is a predoctoral fellow in the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health. Laura’s research interests include exploring transitional care for older adults with sensory impairment.
Yiqi Wang, BSN, BSND

Yiqi Wang is passionate about how nutritional interventions contribute to health outcomes, including the prevention and treatment of mental illness or other chronic conditions among children and adolescents.
Jesse Wool, MBE, BSN

Jesse Wool is a PhD candidate at Penn Nursing. Jesse’s research interests examine parent and guardian decision-making for their children in the pediatric intensive care unit and parental communication with clinicians.