Top nursing honors: Five leaders elected as fellows
Four faculty members and one alumnus achieved the highest of professional accomplishments upon their election as fellows of three nursing organizations.
Two faculty members and an alumnus have been elected as fellows of the American Academy of Nursing. Among them is Associate Professor Rebecca Gary PhD RN FAAN FAHA, one of the first nurse researchers to use exercise interventions to study diastolic heart failure in women. Her pioneering cardiovascular research is helping improve quality of life for heart failure patients, the leading cause of hospitalizations among elders. In 2009, Gary was named a fellow of the American Heart Association.
Susan Shapiro PhD RN FAAN is assistant dean for strategic clinical initiatives in the School of Nursing and director of nursing research and evidence-based practice (EBP) at Emory Healthcare. A nationally recognized expert in EBP and emergency nursing, Shapiro incorporated EBP into two of the nation's leading hospital systems—the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center and Emory Healthcare. Her articles have been published in the American Journal of Nursing, Journal of Nursing Administration, Western Journal of Nursing Research, and AAOHN Journal.
Donald "Chip" Bailey 89MN PhD RN FAAN, associate professor at Duke University's School of Nursing, has pioneered research to better understand self-management strategies in patients with life-threatening illnesses such as prostate cancer, chronic hepatitis C, and end-stage liver disease. His research has been consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Nursing Research. Bailey serves as senior fellow in the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development and core director of geriatric education at Duke.
Elizabeth Downes 04MN/MPH RN FAANP is now a fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Downes is a clinical assistant professor with more than 25 years of international nursing experience in more than a dozen countries, including Ethiopia, Mozambique, Fiji, Liberia, and Zimbabwe. She also provides clinical care to Atlanta's refugee population and migrant farm families in rural Georgia. She continues to train nurses in developing countries. In 2011, Downes and Joyce Murray EdD RN FAAN, professor emeritus, were among the co-authors of Educating Health Professionals in Low-Resource Countries: A Global Approach.
Assistant Professor Carolyn Reilly 94MN PhD RN FAHA is a newly elected fellow of the American Heart Association. Through her research, Reilly seeks to improve clinical, functional, and economic outcomes to foster adherence to prescribed treatments and therapies among patients with cardiothoracic and vascular diseases. Reilly currently is a co-investigator on a National Institute of Nursing Research study to assess quality of life in heart patients with diabetes, led by Sandra Dunbar DSN RN FAAN FAHA, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Cardiovascular Nursing. In 2011, Reilly received the Martha N. Hill New Investigator Award from the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing for her study of "Outcomes from Symptom and Economic Evaluation of Fluid Restriction in Persons with Heart Failure."
