2101 E Coliseum Blvd
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
I joined the Indiana University School of Nursing (IUSON) on July 1, 2018, as the Associate Dean & Professor- Fort Wayne Campus. Prior to joining the IUSON, I was Department Chair & Professor of the UTHSC College of Nursing, Disease Prevention, and Health Promotion, and was Director of the Health Equity Collaborative, and the Fagin Term Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing. While at Penn, I served as Chair of the Faculty Senate and Chaired the Biomedical IRB Panel, and the MPH Admissions Committee in the Penn School of Medicine. Additionally, I served as the Co-Director of the former Center of Health Equity Research Center School of Nursing. Additionally, have served in key leadership roles in healthcare settings.
My research focuses on understanding factors that influence health-promoting behaviors of HIV infected middle-aged and older African American men and HIV risk factors among vulnerable populations. Additionally, I am interested in symptom management strategies used by HIV infected populations. I have served as PI and Co-I on Federal research grants, foundations, and intramural funding. My program of research collectively makes a substantial and significant contribution towards reducing the transmission of HIV/AIDS to the general public in particular African American MSM and women where rates have exceeded some third world countries. My work has been published in leading peer review journals to multidisciplinary audiences and presented regionally and nationally.
Additionally, my work has been cited in interdisciplinary journals such as AIDS Patient Care and STDS, Clinical Psychology-Science and Practice, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Vaccine, AIDS Education and Prevention, and Ethnicity & Disease, as well as top tier nursing journals, including Nursing Research, Journal of Advanced Nursing, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, and Advances in Nursing Science. I have served on Study Sections, serves as peer reviewer for leading research journals, and on several editorial boards. Out of my body of scholarship emerged a book entitled “Dangerous Intimacy, which focused on ten African American men with HIV, and I also authored the book “MANUP” A practical Guide for Men in Nursing published by Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society which has been published worldwide.
I have mentored faculty, undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students, and I am the recipient of mentorship and teaching awards. Most recently, I completed a year-long leadership fellowship with the Society of Behavioral Medicine. In addition to completing my BS, MS, and Ph.D. with a minor in education from the University of California, San Francisco, I completed a two-year Post-doctoral fellowship program at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Nursing, where I concentrated on the quantitative measurement of health-related quality of life in persons living with AIDS. Additionally, I earned an MPH from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health where I focused on the epidemiology of infectious diseases.