Global Nursing Caucus Co-Chairs
Dr. Monica Adhiambo Onyango RNM, MPH, MS, PhD.
Dr. Onyango has over 25 years of experience in health care delivery, management, teaching and research. Currently she is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH)/Department of International Health & Center for Global Health and Development (CGHD). She teaches courses in managing disasters and complex humanitarian emergencies, and sexual and reproductive health in disaster settings. She worked as a health team leader with international non-governmental organizations in relief and development in South Sudan, Angola and a refugee camp in Kenya. Her other experiences include Kenya Ministry of Health for ten years as a nursing officer in hospital management positions and as a lecturer at the Nairobi’s Medical Training College, School of Nursing. In 2011, Dr. Onyango co-founded the Global Nursing Caucus (GNC) at BUSPH. Her current research interests focus on care among populations affected by disasters, reproductive health, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, and the role of nurses and midwives in improving health status of populations globally.
Dr. Lisa Kennedy Sheldon PhD, APRN-BC
Dr. Sheldon is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Boston and nurse practitioner at St. Joseph Hospital, Nashua NH. She teaches in the undergraduate and doctoral nursing programs. Her program of research focuses on patient-provider communication, cancer care and oncology nursing, and nursing education in local and global settings. Through an academic-service partnership and an ongoing study, Dr. Sheldon has been addressing the health needs of Hondurans in the Olancho department with undergraduate students. Additionally, she provides cancer nursing education in global sites through Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO), serves on the HVO Nursing Education Steering Committee and the International Advisory Panel for the Oncology Nursing Society.
Advisory Panel
Patrice K. Nicholas DNSc, DHL (Hon.), MPH, MS, RN, ANP, FAAN
Dr. Nicholas is Director, Global Health and Academic Partnerships at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Professor at the MGH Institute of Health Professions School of Nursing. She developed the BWH Global Nursing Program at BWH in partnership with Partners In Health (PIH). Her program of research focuses on HIV/AIDS, quality of life, symptom management, and neuropathy-related pain in HIV/AIDS. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Sigma Theta Tau International and previously served as Region 15 Coordinator representing chapters in the northeastern US, eastern Canada, western Europe and Africa. Dr. Nicholas completed a postdoctoral fellowship and a Master of Public Health degree at Harvard School of Public Health focusing her program of research on HIV/AIDS. Dr. Nicholas also completed a Certificate of Advanced Study in Primary Care in the Adult Nurse Practitioner Program at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She has served as an external reviewer for the University of Swaziland and on dissertation committees at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She has conducted numerous research studies related to quality of life in HIV/AIDS and neuropathy-related symptoms and pain in HIV disease. Dr. Nicholas has twice been selected for a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award—most recently at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where the US/South African research team conducted two studies related to adherence medications in TB disease and HIV medications and a study on cellular phone use as adherence reminders. Dr. Nicholas has also served on three Fulbright Senior Review panels for the US Department of State and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars in Washington, DC and in Durban, South Africa. Dr. Nicholas is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
Elizabeth Glaser MSc, MA, ACRN, RN-BC
Elizabeth Glaser is a PhD candidate in social policy within the Global Health and Development concentration at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Since 2008, she has been the coordinator of the Tuberculosis , AIDS and Malaria Study group at Heller. As a teaching fellow, she has helped conduct courses in cost-effectiveness analysis, HIV/AIDS Policy, International Health Policy and the core MA course in Poverty, Inequalities, and Development. She holds an MA in Social Policy and a MSc. in International Health Policy and Management from Brandeis University, a BS in Nursing from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and is a past Zinberg Fellow in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is certified in HIV/AIDS and Community/Public Health nursing and is a past president of the Boston Chapter of the Association of Nurses in HIV/AIDS Care (ANAC). Her two decades of nursing experience include clinical nursing mentor for HIV care in South Africa, instructor in psychiatric nursing at the University of Massachusetts, staff nurse in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and ten years of providing care to men and women living in the shelters and on the streets of Boston. Her current research ranges from studies of multilevel models to better evaluate the hospital work environment to economic analyses of a cluster randomized trial of new malaria prevention technologies in western Kenya and Tanzania, including a study of the impact of malaria on children’s quality of life.
Nancy White Street ScD, PNP, BC
Nancy White Street is a pediatric nurse practitioner, with over twenty years of experience in adolescent health, working in urban health care centers. She is currently an Associate Professor at Regis College, where she teaches both nursing and public health and directs the International Nurse Faculty Partnership Initiative. She received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Boston College and a Master of Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Nancy has a Master of Science in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health and has recently defended her doctoral dissertation at Harvard and will be receiving her Doctor of Science degree in May of 2012. She has two professional passions, one being adolescent health and well -being and the other nursing education. Her current global health work involves the development and implementation of a nurse faculty education program in Haiti, where current faculty from nursing schools throughout the country are studying towards a Master of Science in Nursing degree. Nancy is a life-long resident of the Boston area, where she lives with her husband and the family dog, Buddy. She has two grown children, a son who is currently working in Boston and a daughter who is a sophomore in college.
Julie Vosit-Steller DNP, FNP-BC, AOCN
Dr. Vosit-Steller is an Associate Professor and a family nurse practitioner, with a focus of oncology nursing across the curriculum, palliative care and end of life nursing practice. She holds advanced practice nursing consultant positions in Gynecologic-Oncology at Steward Health Care System and is a Palliative Care consultant at Home and Hospice Care of Rhode Island, Providence, RI. She holds clinical appointments at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, in Boston, MA and Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital in Providence, RI. She is a founding member of the New England Alliance for Hospices of Hope, Romania, and a member of the advisory board. Her collaborative hospice work in Romania was the focus of her doctoral capstone project. This mix-methods study was the first to identify and explore end of life nursing actions that contributed to dignified death in Romania and to an international language of palliative care nursing at the end of life, and was published in both English and translated into Romanian. Enhancing global awareness of cultural and spiritual differences concerning end of life has facilitated international scholarly dialogue among nurse scientists. Current research examines this collaboration and extension of the study into neighboring countries. She continues to be invited to pursue regional, national and international speaking engagements in gynecologic oncology, palliative care and cultural issues that influence end of life care. Her additional professional background includes consultation at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Dr. Vosit-Steller has served as study coordinator for several phase three clinical trials focused on gynecologic cancer treatment. Her post-graduate thesis, Promoting Cervical Cancer Screening in Hispanic Women in Rhode Island, focused on the current trends of health screening and maintenance behaviors in the female Hispanic population of the state. She started the women’s health clinic at Clinica Esperanza in 2011. She serves on the medical advisory board of Clinica Esperanza in Providence, RI.
Rosanna F. DeMarco PhD, PHCNS-BC, ACRN, FAAN
Dr. DeMarco is a tenured associate professor at the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College. She is recognized internationally, nationally and locally for her interdisciplinary scholarship and community service specifically in the area of HIV prevention and interventions tailored to Black women living with HIV/AIDS. Significant outcomes of Dr. DeMarco’s work include 1) a peer-driven HIV prevention program for underserved women, 2) co-production of the film Women’s Voices Women’s Lives© featuring four African- American women asserting candid messages about HIV/AIDS prevention, 3) a peer-led structured writing intervention program called Sistah Powah using the film as a key component and 4) a founding member of an International Internet Blog site called the HIV and Religion Collaborative (HARC). The film and corresponding curricula for women, teens, and providers has been tested and utilized by AIDS service agencies and schools of nursing/public health across the United States, Africa, Vietnam, Nicaragua, and the Ministry of Health in Jamaica.
The National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS) bestowed the Researcher of the Year Award to her in 2012 and the National Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC) granted her the HIV Prevention Award in 2010. She was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in November of 2008. She has sustained history of funded research and has over 70 publications in scholarly journals and books. Dr. DeMarco received her Bachelor of Science degree from Northeastern University, her Master of Science from Boston College and her PhD from Wayne State University.
Maggie Sullivan RN, MS, FNP-BC
Maggie Sullivan is a family nurse practitioner, currently working in shelter-based clinics with Boston Health Care for the Homeless. She received her BA from Barnard College and her MS from the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) with a sub-specialty in women’s health. Ms Sullivan is bilingual and has worked with low-income Spanish-speaking immigrant patients for over 15 years. She provided primary care services at Tiburcio Vazquez Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center in the Bay Area of California, in addition to completing a fellowship in farm worker health with the Migrant Clinician’s Network (MCN) in Salinas, California. Ms Sullivan has also implemented public health and nursing projects in Mexico, Paraguay and India, and provided disaster relief services in both Haiti and Guatemala. Ms Sullivan completed an internship in 2009 with Partners In Health’s Institute for Health and Social Justice. She continues to collaborate with PIH on their medical projects in Chiapas, Mexico and in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Ms Sullivan is a co-moderator for Global Health Delivery Online’s nursing community (GHDonline.org/nursing/) and is on the board of Found in Translation (found-in-translation.org), a non-profit organization that works to improve the economic independence of low-income and homeless bilingual women by providing them with the opportunity to become professional medical interpreters. Ms Sullivan’s research interests include the health status of undocumented Spanish-speakers, day laborers and how immigration patterns impact health disparities. She is the lead author on “Mental health of undocumented Mexican immigrants: a review of the literature.” She has also contributed to OpenForum, the companion blog to Health and Human Rights: An International Journal, Migrant Clinicians Network’s Streamline, and AccessDenied: A conversation on unauthorized im/migration and health.
Anne Sliney DSc (hon),BSN, RN, ACRN
Anne Sliney is the Chief Nursing Officer of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). In that role, she has assisted governments in resource-poor countries as they scale-up care and treatment programs for HIV infected individuals. She advises the Clinton Foundation on nursing issues, and works with nursing leaders and educators in partner countries to design programs that enhance the role of the nurse in HIV/AIDS care. She is an AIDS Certified Registered Nurse. Prior to joining the Clinton Foundation, she developed and implemented a community-based adherence program in collaboration with all of the HIV care providers and the AIDS Service Organizations in Rhode Island.
Anne is adjunct faculty of the Rhode Island College School of Nursing, where she received an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 2006, and is on the Faculty of the Brown University AIDS Program. Anne is the president of the RI Chapter of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care and chairs the Public Policy Committee of RI ANAC.
Eileen Stuart-Shor PhD, ANP-BC, FAHA, FAAN
Dr. Stuart-Shor received her undergraduate degree from Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH; Masters degree as a Cardiovascular Clinical Nurse Specialist and Adult Nurse Practitioner from Boston College, Boston, MA; and a Doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Boston in Nursing and Health Policy. She completed a post-doctoral cardiology research fellowship at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School. Currently she is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Boston and a Nurse Practitioner in Anesthesia/Critical Care at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Her clinical work and program of research is focused on health disparities and improving cardiovascular outcomes for underserved populations including racial and ethnic minorities, women, the elderly and individuals with low socioeconomic status. Dr. Stuart-Shor works closely with colleagues at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health to examine disparities in cardiovascular outcomes for underserved populations and propose nurse-led models emanating from a social-ecological framework to remedy the observed disparities. More recently this work has extended to Kenya where she is collaborating on an initiative to address the emerging cardiovascular/metabolic crisis in that country.
Dr. Stuart-Shor has received local, national and international recognition for her contributions. Her work establishing a nurse-led model for homeless individuals was recognized with a Schweitzer Fellowship and Humanitarian Award from the City of Boston; her work in Roxbury received the Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke Prevention Award for Innovative Programs for the Under-served from NECON/American Heart Association/DuPont and her work in Kenya was honored with the Jamhuriwood Humanitarian Award; Friend of Kenya. She received the National American Heart Association Excellence in Clinical Practice and Research Award, and was elected as a Fellow in the American Heart Association, Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association and The American Academy of Nursing.
Sheila Davis DNP, ANP-BC, FAAN
Sheila Davis joined Partners In Health as the Global Nursing Coordinator in October of 2010 and was named Director of Global Nursing in July of 2011. Sheila has worked in the field of HIV/AIDS since the mid-1980′s and in global health since 2000. She co-founded a small NGO with other nursing colleagues that worked in South Africa and Boston from 2004-2010 on health projects including a rural village nurse clinic and vulnerable feeding program.
Sheila received her BSN from Northeastern University in 1988, her Masters in Nursing as an Adult Nurse Practitioner from the MGH Institute of Health Professions in 1997, and her Doctorate in Nursing Practice with a concentration in global health in 2008 also from the MGH Institute of Health Professions. Currently in addition to PIH, Sheila is an Adult Nurse Practitioner at MGH Infectious Diseases outpatient practice and is an Assistant Professor at the MGH Institute of Health Professions.
Sheila was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2008 and is a frequent national speaker on global health, clinical topics including HIV/AIDS, and role of nursing in human rights. In 2009, Sheila was inducted as one of the inaugural class of 12 Carl Wilken’s Fellows working on anti-genocide global efforts as part of the Genocide Intervention Network, as the only nurse that was part of the first fellowship group. Sheila has published in number of domestic and global journals and is on the editorial board for Health and Human Rights: An International Journal.
Elna Osso RN, MPH
Elna works as Coordinator for a Tuberculosis Clinical Study at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine Harvard Medical School. Before joining HMS, Elna was Socios En Salud/Partners In Health International Project Coordinator.
She was born and raised in Peru. Elna received her Nursing Diploma from New England Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing in Boston, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Southern Maine, and a Masters of Public Health with emphasis in International Health from Boston University.
Elna worked in Maine for 19 years as a Clinical Staff Nurse at Maine Medical Center and as a Clinical Nursing Instructor at Southern Maine Community College. In addition to her ample experience working with the underserved population in Portland, Maine, Elna volunteered with SES/PIH on many occasions and participated in medical missions to a number of countries. Most recently she volunteered with Deseaperu, an NGO based in the high Andes region of Peru, where she worked facilitating access to health care with fellow nurses and community health workers. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors for a Maine-based medical organization that works in Haiti and is a member of the Global Nursing Caucus.
Tricia O’Donohue RN, MPH
Tricia is an accomplished healthcare professional with 14 years of domestic and international experience. After graduating from nursing school in 1999, Tricia began travel nursing in the US. She took her first international trip to the developing world in 2005 which fueled her passion for international health work. After several trips to Haiti, Vietnam and Cambodia she returned to school to follow her passion and true calling. In 2012 she graduated from Boston University with her Masters in Public Health with a focus in international health. Her degree work afforded her the opportunity to work with Partners In Health in Haiti later leading to a consulting position on nursing education as well as program development and implementation. She also was project manager for the implementation of a triage system at l’Hôpital Saint Nicolas’ Emergency Department. She now is working in the Emergency Department in New York and hopes to return to Haiti in January to continue her work there.
Clara M. Gona PhD, FNP-BC
Dr. Gona is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner, and currently teaches in the Family Nurse Practitioner track. Dr Gona has many years of experience as a registered nurse and nurse educator both in the US and in Zimbabwe. She currently maintains clinical practice as an Advance Practice Nurse at Spaulding North End. Her research focus is on global health focusing on women’s health particularly HIV/AIDS among women. Dr Gona has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Johns Hopkins University, a Master of Science in Nursing from UNC Wilmington and PhD in Nursing from Boston College.
Pat Daoust MSN, RN
Pat Daoust is the Chief Nursing Officer for the Global Health Service Partnership with US Peace Corps. She is also the Director of Nursing at the Center for Global Health at Mass. General Hospital and lecturer on Global Health at the University of Mass-Boston School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Pat was previously the Director of the Global AIDS Initiative for Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). This multi-year Gates funded campaign advocated for a comprehensive, evidence and rights-based responsive to the global AIDS epidemic with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Under Pat’s leadership special emphasis was given to the promotion of effective US policies that address the most marginalized, especially women and girls. Health Rights=Healthy Women, an advocacy platform design by Pat, addressed the vitally important role that human rights play in the empowerment of women and girls. By partnering with health professional and women’s organizations on the ground in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, the campaign brought first-hand expertise to the attention of key policymakers both in-country and the US and successfully impacted major legislation, specifically the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
Pat is a registered nurse with over 30 years of clinical, educational and managerial experience. Prior to joining PHR she worked on issues related to the domestic HIV epidemic and served as the Director of Client Services for the AIDS Action Committee of Mass. Pat subsequently worked with the Harvard AIDS Institute and served on the faculty of the KITSO program, an HIV educational partnership between the Harvard School of Public Health and The Botswana government. Pat then consulted with I-TECH and led a large and innovative Center for Disease Control-funded Nursing Capacity Building Project in Ethiopia, which is presently being replicated in other African countries.
Pat serves as co-chair of the global committee of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC) and a member of the advisory committee for the Global Nursing Caucus.