2012 international new Fellows - American Academy of Nursing

gREtCHEn laWHOn, pHD, Rn
gretchen Lawhon is Vice President of the NIDCAP Federation International, Director of the Mid-
Atlantic NIDCAP Center at The Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper University Hospital
and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden,
New Jersey.
Dr. Lawhon has cared for infants since the age of nine, having been one of thirteen children
in a strong Irish Catholic military family with the value of service toward others. Her mission of
supporting parental nurturing forged her path of clinical practice and research. As a neonatal
clinical nurse specialist, she had the privilege and responsibility of representing nursing in a
collaborative multidisciplinary research initiative leading to the creation, implementation, and
dissemination of the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program
(NIDCAP). This work, led by Dr. Heidelise Als, a neurobehavioral psychologist, became the nonprofit
organization, NIDCAP Federation, International (NFI) with 19 centers throughout the world.
Dr. Lawhon was co-investigator in several of the early research supporting this individualized
developmentally supportive approach to care of infants and families in the newborn intensive
unit. Her doctoral dissertation was Facilitation of Parenting within the Newborn Intensive Care
Unit at the University of Washington School of Nursing. Additionally Dr. Lawhon has been coinvestigator
of the NINR funded Stability of Infant Responses to Painful Procedures study.
The breadth of Dr. Lawhon’s 36 years of clinical practice and research is exemplary of how
nursing science can be actualized within multidisciplinary and international settings. She
consistently generates, synthesizes and disseminates neonatal nursing knowledge.
lisa lEWis, pHD, Rn
Lisa Lewis is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing in the
Department of Family and Community Health. She is a core faculty member of the Center for
Health Equity Research.
Dr. Lewis’ program of research focuses on reducing the racial disparities in blood pressure
control. Using mostly community based research methods, she studies determinants of medication
adherence in hypertensive African Americans with an emphasis on psychosocial factors such as
self-efficacy, social support, depression, spirituality, and perceived discrimination. She is Principal
Investigator of a newly funded NIH R01 longitudinal study of adherence to medication in African
American men with hypertension (1R01NR013491-01A). The Washington Post, U.S. News
World Report, and the Philadelphia Inquirer have all cited the results of her research.
As an educator, Dr. Lewis’ main focus has been to prepare nursing students who provide health
care to the nation’s ever increasing diverse populations. Dr. Lewis is on the editorial board for
the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. She serves as grant reviewer for the American Heart
Association National Peer Review Committee on Behavioral Science and is a member of the
Society of Behavioral Medicine, American Public Health Association, and the Eastern Nursing
Research Society.
Dr. Lewis earned a PhD in Nursing, along with a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies from
the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2002, an MA in Nursing Education from New York
University in 1998, and a BSN from Syracuse University in 1991.
sUsan lOEb, pHD, Rn
Susan Loeb is an Associate Professor, School of Nursing, and Department of Medicine, at The
Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Loeb’s research is unique in its population of focus—people aging and dying in our nation’s
prisons. She combines an important nursing lens and set of values with rigorous scientific inquiry
to make her seminal contribution: enhancing health and promoting dignified death in prison
settings. With funding from NIH/NINR and NIH/NIA, Dr. Loeb’s research addresses: aging
in place; management of chronic conditions; and end-of-life care. No small part of this work
has been convincing correctional policy makers to view incarceration as an opportune time
for improving inmates’ health practices and for providing humane end-of-life care. Her focus
on developing inmates’ self-care skills is an effective line of attack for promoting health and
chronic illness management that avoids undue financial burden on strained prison resources. In
partnership with the Department of Corrections, her team has created a “Toolkit for Enhancing
End-of-Life Care”, which has been implemented in prisons across Pennsylvania.
2012
new FEllOWs
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