Nurse scientist named associate dean of research
YSN is pleased to welcome Xiaomei Cong as the new associate dean of research. Cong is one of the first US nurse scientists investigating cumulative pain and stress in early life and neurodevelopment using biobehavioral and multiomic approaches. She is expected to join YSN from the University of Connecticut in September.
YSN salutes distinguished alumni
Congratulations to the winners of the Distinguished Alumni Award: Shannon Fitzgerald ’80MSN, Mary Geary ’74MSN, and Beth Baldwin Tigges ’84MSN. YSN is also pleased to recognize Nicole Seagriff ’11MSN as the winner of the Decade Award. Fitzgerald has practiced in urban hospitals and rural clinics in the middle of the desert; Geary started her nursing career administering polio vaccines at age 15; and Baldwin Tigges co-developed and led psychometric testing of the first set of scales to measure organizational mentoring climate. Seagriff is a two-time breast cancer survivor and founder of a nonprofit that has raised millions of dollars for breast cancer research and care.
Alumna leads specialty through curriculum refresh
When Ami Marshall ’04MSN was an RN-entry student at YSN, she always knew she wanted to come back and teach. Now the specialty director for the Adult/Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program, Marshall is guiding it through a curriculum refresh. Part of her work included recentering the curriculum around the Connecticut Older Adult Collaboration for Health 4M framework for care of the older adult: mentation (cognitive assessment and management), medication (appropriate medication use), safe mobility (mobility assessment and management and fall prevention), and matters most (patient outcome health care goals). Connecticut’s population of people aged 65 and older is projected to grow by 57 percent by 2040, and nationally there will be 90 million people in that age group by mid-century.