School Notes: School of Nursing
November/December 2017

Professor to get public service award

Associate Clinical Professor of Nursing Linda Schwartz ’84MSN, ’88DrPH, is one of three recipients of the prestigious Yale-Jefferson Award for Public Service, given annually at Yale to recognize those who inspire the Yale community through innovative, impactful, and sustained service for the greater good. A Vietnam veteran, Schwartz served in the US Air Force Nurse Corps from 1968 to 1986, until medically retiring after sustaining injuries in an aircraft accident. As a disabled veteran, she has worked tirelessly in Connecticut and nationally to improve health care for veterans, including being commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs from 2003 to 2014 and as the VA assistant secretary for policy and planning in 2014.

Nine students win scholarships

YSN oncology-concentration students were awarded nine of the 15 ACS Graduate Scholarships in Cancer Nursing Practice in the 2017 competition. Class of ’19 students Andrea Desmond, Danielle DiPerna, and Shannon Meagher will each receive $10,000 towards their tuition for this year and next. Rosabelle Conover, Lisa Hammon, Elle Levy, Michael Levien, Julie Palmer-Hoffman, and Katie Straw from the Class of 2018 will also receive $10,000 each towards their tuition.

Faculty awarded research grants

Several faculty have been awarded research grants: Wei-Ti Chen, from the NIH’s National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, to promote understanding of the self-management barriers and facilitators among HIV-positive Asian Americans; Veronica Barcelona de Mendoza, a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award to study the associations between DNA methylation, obesity, and preterm birth on blood pressure in African American children; postdoctoral fellow Samantha Conley, from the American Nurses Foundation, to explore the diurnal patterns of activity-rest, melatonin, social cues, and symptoms in adults with inflammatory bowel disease; and Maggie Holland, an Academic Research Enhancement Award from the National Institute of Nursing Research, to examine the impact of a statewide home visiting program on birth outcomes of second children.