Demetrius Abshire, PhD, RN, FAAN
University of South Carolina
Associate Professor, Director of PhD in Nursing Science Program
Dr. Demetrius Abshire is an associate professor and director of the PhD in Nursing Science program at the University of South Carolina College of Nursing. He received his BSN, MSN, and PhD from the University of Kentucky College of Nursing. Dr. Abshire’s research examines factors associated with poorer health outcomes among people living in rural communities, including rural-urban differences in cardiovascular disease risk, health perceptions, and access to resources that support healthy lifestyles. His current research focuses on developing and testing lifestyle interventions to reduce obesity among Black men living in the rural South. Findings from this work suggest that lifestyle interventions delivered in publicly accessible outdoor settings and incorporating sports and friendly competition are feasible, acceptable, and promising approaches to weight management.
Throughout his academic career, Dr. Abshire has mentored undergraduate and graduate students in developing their skills as nurse scholars. Students he has mentored have received research grants and awards, published peer-reviewed articles, and obtained faculty positions at research-intensive universities. Dr. Abshire serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Rural Health, chairs the Southern Nursing Research Society’s Development Committee, and is a member of the National Rural Health Association’s Rural Obesity and Chronic Disease Interest Group.
Helen Baker, PhD, MSc, FNP-BC, RN
Emory University
Associate Professor, Assistant Dean for Prelicensure
Helen Baker is a Clinical Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Prelicensure Programs at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. She is a nurse educator, family nurse practitioner, and researcher whose work spans nursing education, academic leadership, public and population health, and global health.
Dr. Baker was a Jonas Scholar from 2014–2016 while completing her PhD in Nursing at Emory. She also holds an MS in Nursing and post-graduate Family Nurse Practitioner certificate from Emory, an MSc in Demography and Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, a BSN from Johns Hopkins University, and a BA in Anthropology from Macalester College. Her clinical background includes family practice, oncology, public health, and research nursing. Her global health experience includes service as a Peace Corps Health Volunteer and later a Peace Corps Response Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist in Togo.
Dr. Baker’s teaching and scholarship focus on public and population health, global health, sexual and reproductive health, and nursing education. Her academic leadership includes serving as BSN Program Director and Assistant Dean for Teaching and Learning before assuming her current role. She coordinates the Peace Corps Coverdell Fellows Program and supports global and community engagement through the Lillian Carter Center.
Dr. Baker has mentored students and faculty, including PhD and DNP students, undergraduate honors students, teaching assistants, and faculty colleagues. Her mentoring interests include nursing education, scholarly writing, professional development, academic leadership, and preparation for faculty positions.
Dr. Baker received the 2022 Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award and 2025 Georgia Association for Nursing Education Innovation in Teaching Award and participated in the 2025–2026 National League for Nursing Leadership Institute LEAD Program. As a former Jonas Scholar, she looks forward to supporting scholars’ academic, professional, and leadership development.
Amy Bruce, DNP, MSN, BSN, NE-BC
Charleston Area Medical Center Institute for Academic Medicine
Associate Chief Academic Officer
Amy F. Bruce is Associate Chief Academic Officer for Health Sciences and Professional Education at the CAMC Institute for Academic Medicine, part of Vandalia Health. A nurse leader, educator, researcher, and former Jonas Nurse Leader Scholar, Dr. Bruce has dedicated her career to advancing nursing education, developing healthcare leaders, and strengthening the healthcare workforce.
Dr. Bruce earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice in Nursing Leadership from West Virginia University, a Master of Science in Nursing Administration from Marshall University, and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Charleston. Her career spans clinical nursing, higher education, academic administration, continuing professional education, and executive leadership.
In her role at the CAMC Institute for Academic Medicine, Dr. Bruce established the organization’s first Office of Learner Affairs, creating a centralized structure to support and coordinate experiential rotations for learners throughout the clinical environment. She also developed Vandalia Health’s first Advanced Practice Provider Critical Care Fellowship and continues to expand joint providership opportunities, extending accredited continuing education across healthcare disciplines throughout the health system. Her broader work includes workforce development, simulation and experiential learning, curriculum innovation, interprofessional education, mentorship, and the development of sustainable educational pathways for healthcare professionals.
As a former Jonas Scholar, Dr. Bruce understands firsthand the transformative impact of mentorship, professional networks, and leadership development. As a Jonas Mentor, she is committed to helping emerging nurse leaders recognize their potential, develop confidence, navigate leadership opportunities, and translate their scholarship and passion into meaningful, sustainable change in healthcare.
Nicholas Giordano, PhD, RN, FAAN
Emory University
Associate Professor
Dr. Nicholas Giordano is a tenured Associate Professor at Emory University's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. His research focuses on characterizing pain and symptom trajectories to inform the timely delivery of targeted interventions that improve patient and clinician outcomes. His work spans populations, including working with athletes, traumatically injured patients, veterans, and older adults undergoing orthopaedic surgery, with an emphasis on advancing symptom assessment and optimizing recovery monitoring using wearables and patient-reported outcomes to support the implementation of opioid-sparing pain management interventions. As a data-driven nurse scientist, Dr. Giordano partners closely with clinicians and health system leaders to address pressing care delivery challenges using improvement science approaches. His team’s research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Dr. Giordano earned his BSN, MS, and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, as well as an AM in Statistics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his postdoctoral training at the Defense and Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management at the Uniformed Services University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, served as a Jonas Policy Scholar, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Australia.
Olivia Halabicky, PhD, RN, M.Sc., BSN
University of Michigan
Assistant Professor
Dr. Olivia Halabicky is a children’s environmental health nurse scientist and an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, with joint appointments in the School of Public Health Nutritional Sciences and Environmental Health Sciences Departments. She previously worked in her hometown of Flint, Michigan, as a neonatal ICU registered nurse during the Flint Water Crisis. Her clinical experiences caring for infants and families during this period shaped her interest in understanding how environmental exposures and broader social conditions influence children’s health across the life course and continue to drive her research today.
Broadly, her research examines how inequitable environmental and social exposures at sensitive periods together shape health trajectories and disparities, as well as physiological mechanisms that may mediate these effects. She employs methods from a variety of disciplines, including nursing, environmental and social epidemiology, and developmental sciences.
She received her PhD in nursing with a concentration in children’s environmental health from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholars Program as well as an NIH F31 Predoctoral Award. She completed a T32 postdoctoral training program at the University of Michigan School of Public Health focused on Environmental Toxicology and Epidemiology. Her current research is supported by NIH K99/R00 and R21 awards through the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Ashley Leak Bryant, PhD, RN, OCN, FAAN, FGSA
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Professor and Senior Associate Dean for Office of Strategy and Global Affairs
Dr. Ashley Leak Bryant is Vice Dean and Frances Hill Fox Distinguished Term Professor. She also co-directs the school's Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO) Collaborating Center in Quality and Safety Education in Nursing and Midwifery. Dr. Bryant is a scientist whose research focuses on team-based palliative care for older adults with cancer and their care partners. Her work emphasizes interprofessional practice and research shaped by patients and caregivers. Her contributions to nursing science and education also include developing academic-practice partnerships that support workforce development and students and nurses locally, nationally and globally.
She earned her BSN and MSN from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her PhD and Interdisciplinary Certificate in Aging from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a Fellow the American Academy of Nursing, Gerontological Society of America, and Academy of Nursing Education.
Lisa Catherine Lindley, PhD, RN, FPCN, FAAN
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Professor & Nightingale Endowed Faculty Fellow
Dr. Lisa Catherine Lindley is a Professor and Nightingale Endowed Faculty Fellow at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville College of Nursing. An internationally recognized leader in pediatric hospice and palliative care, she is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She earned her Master of Science in Business from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and her PhD in Nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing.
Dr. Lindley's research focuses on improving care for children with serious illnesses through innovative health services and policies, with particular expertise in pediatric hospice care. She has served as principal investigator on multiple NIH-funded studies examining how healthcare policy interventions can improve outcomes for children and families while addressing health disparities among at-risk populations.
Her work combines advanced data analytics and methods to improve healthcare access, cost, and quality, which has resulted in more than 170 peer-reviewed publications, numerous awards, and national leadership roles within hospice and palliative care organizations. In addition to her research, Dr. Lindley is a dedicated educator and mentor, preparing the next generation of nurse scientists and health policy leaders.
Rana "Renna" Najjar, PhD, RN, CNE, CPNP, ANEF
Oregon Health & Science University
Associate Professor
Rana Halabi Najjar (she/her/هي) is an Associate Professor at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) School of Nursing, where she teaches across undergraduate and graduate programs. Dr. Najjar’s research and scholarship focus on bias and discrimination in healthcare education and the development of equitable, inclusive, and evidence-informed educational practices. She is a 2022 AACN Diversity Leadership Institute Fellow and has continued her work with AACN through contributions to the development of the Access, Connection, and Engagement (ACE) Ecosystem of Excellence and the AACN ACE position statement. Most recently, she was inducted as a Fellow in the Academy of Nursing Education in recognition of her contributions to nursing education.
Dr. Najjar has made innovative and sustained contributions to nursing education through the development of Trauma-Informed Educational Practices (TIEP), an approach that integrates trauma-informed principles, learning science, equity, and relational practices into healthcare education. Her work includes a comprehensive curriculum and faculty development program focused on equitable teaching, assessment and grading, and student self-assessment and has been disseminated through publications, presentations, invited lectures, keynotes, workshops, and national collaborations.
Dr. Najjar also contributed her expertise to the development of the Equity Impact Assessment Tool (EIAT), a trauma-informed framework for examining educational policies and practices through an equity lens. This work has since evolved into a multi-university collaboration to develop an AI-supported tool that helps healthcare educators examine and create more equitable and justice-focused policies and practices.
Collaboration and co-creation with students are central to Dr. Najjar’s approach to teaching and scholarship. She is currently engaged in a collaborative autoethnography study with PhD students that examines their shared experiences of learning, teaching, and knowledge development within doctoral education.
Across her work, Dr. Najjar’s TIEP scholarship and equity-centered innovations reflect a career-long commitment to transforming nursing education through evidence-informed, justice-centered, and healing-centered approaches.
Jennifer Ohlendorf, PhD, RN
Marquette University
Associate Professor, Interim PhD Program Director
Dr. Jennifer Ohlendorf is a perinatal self-management scientist whose interdisciplinary research, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Nurses Association, focuses on how nurses can promote physical activity and healthy eating self-management during the perinatal period. She developed the Coaching for Childbearing Health (CoaCH) model, a nurse-led intervention that helps pregnant and postpartum individuals set and achieve health goals. Her recent work includes an evaluation trial of a CoaCH- based coaching intervention to promote the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 behaviors among postpartum women after hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
Dr. Ohlendorf also conducts qualitative and community-engaged research examining the role of physical activity and athletics in women’s health and well-being. Most recently, she was a leader on an interdisciplinary team, funded by the Marquette University Insitute for Women’s Leadership and the Presidential Challenge grant, completed a three-year community-engaged participatory action research project with women and nonbinary individuals with carceral systems-related trauma using bodymapping and story-telling to explore how engaging in power-based physical activity in a supportive community can promote healing from embodied stress.
Committed to developing the next generation of nurse leaders and scholars, Dr. Ohlendorf has mentored students through Marquette University’s Project BEYOND, a HRSA-funded nursing success program and through the federally-funded McNair Scholars Program. She supported her mentees through regional and national conference presentations, publications and also to achieving successful academic careers.
Dr. Ohlendorf earned her Bachelors and PhD degrees at Marquette University and her Masters of Science as a Women’s Health Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Educator from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She completed post-doctoral training through the Clinical Research Scholars Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Natalia Villegas Rodriguez, PhD, MSN, RN, IBCLC, FAAN
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Associate Professor
Dr. Natalia Villegas Rodriguez is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing (UNC), and Deputy Director of the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre for Quality and Safety in Nursing and Midwifery at UNC. She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Nursing from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, completed her PhD in Nursing at the University of Miami, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Health Disparities at El Centro, the NIMHD-funded Center of Excellence for Health Disparities Research (2P60MD002266). She is a Registered Nurse, nurse-midwife, and International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). Before joining UNC as an Associate Professor in 2020, she was an Associate Professor of Clinical at the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies (UM SONHS, 2012–2019).
An internationally recognized researcher, her scholarship focuses on women’s health, childbearing, HIV prevention, stigma reduction, and culturally tailored, technology-based interventions addressing health disparities among Latino populations in the United States and globally. Her research also examines HIV in the context of substance use, mental health, and intimate partner violence. Since joining UNC, Dr. Villegas has contributed to 20 intramural and federally funded research projects as Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, mentor, and consultant. As PI, she conducted NIH-funded research evaluating Infección de Amor (Infectious Love), a culturally tailored telenovela intervention designed to reduce HIV risk among Latinas (NIDA, R34DA053887, PI: Villegas, 2022–2025). She has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles in interdisciplinary journals and has disseminated her work internationally. A central component of Dr. Villegas’s work is building meaningful partnerships with communities and academic, clinical, and governmental organizations. Her community-engaged work partners with communities, healthcare professionals, academic institutions, and organizations serving underserved populations to ensure culturally responsive research and education.
Her global scholarship spans Chile, Guatemala, Malawi, Ecuador, Mexico, and other Latin American and Caribbean settings, addressing HIV prevention, maternal and reproductive health, gender-based violence, adolescent health, stigma, nursing education, and social determinants of health.
Dr. Villegas has extensive experience in education, curriculum development, international training, student exchange, and mentorship. Her teaching and mentoring spans undergraduate and graduate students, as well as early-career researchers and faculty. Her mentorship extends beyond the classroom through research training, dissertation committees, student research projects, and international educational experiences.
Her contributions extend to policy and professional leadership, including serving as a Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research (FNINR) Ambassador since 2021 and, in 2024, being appointed to the North Carolina Institute of Medicine Task Force on the Future of the Nursing Workforce.