Community
U.S. News & World Report ranked the Connell School ninth out of 684 nursing schools in the Best Undergraduate Nursing Programs.
A $1.8 million grant from the Bedford Falls Foundation will support the Connell School’s undergraduate nursing program through scholarships, a new learning specialist to oversee student success programming, and an emergency fund for students.
Faculty
Burgess is a Mastermind
Professor Ann Burgess, a psychiatric and forensic nurse who has spent a nearly six-decade career in criminal profiling, is the subject and consulting producer of Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer. The Hulu docuseries, which explores Burgess’s groundbreaking work, premiered at the Tribeca Festival last summer. View trailer
Read more about the Hulu docuseries
Curriculum Redesign in Nursing Education
Assistant Professor Lindsey Camp was awarded a Boston College Teaching, Advising and Mentoring Grant for her project titled “Curriculum Redesign in Nursing Education: A Design Thinking Approach.” Her grant collaborators include Assistant Professor Brittney van de Water, Associate Professor and Strakosch Family Faculty Fellow Tam Nguyen, Assistant Professor of the Practice Ashley Longacre, and Associate Professor of the Practice Donna Cullinan.
Recognized for excellence
Assistant Professor of the Practice Alison Marshall received the Kelly Armstrong Excellence Award from the Boston College Women’s Center.
Collaborating on low-cost, mobile ultrasound systems
Associate Professor Jinhee Park was awarded a Boston College Research Expense Grant for her project “Ultrasound for Body Composition Assessment: Pilot Study Analysis.” She and her team will develop a novel ultrasound tool that can guide a user to collect high quality data and automatically determine body composition measures for nutritional evaluation.
Read more about this research
Faculty named AAN Fellows
Associate Professor Jinhee Park and Assistant Professor Brittney van de Water were inducted as fellows into the American Academy of Nursing, joining the field’s most accomplished leaders in policy, research, administration, practice, and academia.
Petreca recognized as leader in forensic nursing
The Academy of Forensic Nursing and The DAISY Foundation named Assistant Professor Victor Petreca a 2024 Forensic Nursing Scholar, one of its inaugural DAISY Nurse Leader Awards in Forensic Nursing.
BC honors Simonelli for her work in Belize
Associate Dean M. Colleen Simonelli received Boston College’s 2024 Community Service Award in recognition of her work to establish a nursing program at St. John’s College in Belize. (Pictured, with Boston College President William P.Leahy, S.J.)
MCNP honors CSON faculty
The Massachusetts Coalition of Nurse Practitioners presented Associate Professor of the Practice Sherri St. Pierre with an Exceptional Preceptor Award and Associate Professor of the Practice Laura White with its Eileen Hayes Mentoring Award.
Van de Water recognized by CANS
In June, the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science presented Assistant Professor Brittney van de Water with the Brilliant New Investigator Award at its 2024 State of the Science Congress on Nursing Research.
Alumni
Courtesy: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Anne Gross, M.S. ’90, was named the Ning Zhao Chair of Nursing, the first endowed nursing position of its kind at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Gross is chief nursing officer at Dana-Farber.
In a Boston College Magazine article, Katie Fitzgerald Jones, Ph.D. ’22, discusses her research and care for patients with a comorbidity of chronic pain and past issues with substance abuse.
Students
Aghdasi participates in symposium on forced migration
Zina Aghdasi, M.S. ’24, D.N.P. ’26 was part of a Boston College delegation at a Dublin symposium that focused on the spectrum of resources and services needed to aid forcibly displaced people around the world.
Read more about this symposium
Jonas Scholars named
Jonas Nursing and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing named doctoral students Taylor Bellfield and Nicholas Raposo ’18 to the Jonas Scholars 2024–2026 cohort.
CRNA student Cornyn receives NEF scholarship
Nurses Educational Funds awarded Maura Cornyn, D.N.P. ’25, its Mary V. Insall Scholarship for 2025.
Dossous showcases the power and versatility of hair
Ashley Dossous ’24 created the Inaugural Hair Show last spring to celebrate hair as an art form and centerpiece of Black culture. Dossous launched the hair braiding business Slayed by Asho as a first-year student.
Undergraduate research day
Undergraduates presented posters at the 2024 Student Research Day of the Hamilton Research Symposium, including:
* Victoria Ferguson ’25, “Delirium in the Older Adult.” Advised by Associate Professor Patricia Tabloski
* Caroline Kern ’26, “Investigating Marketplace Plans and the Variation in Deductibles, Co-Insurance, and Co-Payment across Diabetic Compliance Profiles.” Advised by Associate Dean Diana Bowser
* Ranan Kim ’25, “An Exploration of How Simulation-Based Learning Promotes Nurses’ Ethical Knowledge and Competency: A Systematic Review.” Advised by Assistant Professor Melissa Uveges
* Anna Laytham ’24, “Risk of Death among Nursing Home Residents: A Cross-National Perspective.” Advised by Associate Dean Elizabeth Howard
Junior receives study-abroad scholarship
Lucas Geromini ’26 was awarded a David L. Boren National Security Education Program Scholarship to study Arabic in Amman, Jordan.
Gueye named exceptional preceptor
Aissatou (Aysha) Gueye, M.S. ’14, D.N.P. ’26, received the Exceptional Preceptor Award from the Massachusetts Coalition of Nurse Practitioners at its 2024 New England Regional Nurse Practitioner Conference.
Learn more about MCNP's conference
Student to remember
Oluchi Ota ’24 was named one of four Seniors to Remember from the Boston College Class of 2024. As a student, she served as a delegate to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Egypt (COP27).
Student spotlight
Esther Udoakang ’25 talks about how her nursing studies and extracurricular activities help prepare her to make a difference in the world.
Publications and presentations
CSON faculty and their teams were prolific in their scholarly work, including:
Publications
- Caring for long-term care residents with serious persistent mental illness, by Associate Professor Jane Flanagan
- Trisomy 21 and congenital heart disease: A scientific statement, by Assistant Professor Melissa Uveges
- The risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in older adults with diabetes, by Assistant Professor Patricia Underwood
Presentations
- Empowering young Korean nurses, by Assistant Professor Eunji Cho
- Health and mid- to later-life couples, by Professor Karen Lyons
- Understanding and navigating menopause, by Assistant Professor Alison Marshall
Event
Professor Ann Burgess, Assistant Professor Victor Petreca, and retired FBI Agent Jeff Wood were the Dr. Maureen P. McCausland Pinnacle Keynote Speakers at the fall Pinnacle lecture panel discussion, “Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing and Its Effect on the Law, Forensics, and Patient Care.” BC Presidential Scholar Johany Jeune ’25 moderated the discussion.
In Memory
Professor Emeritus Carol R. Hartman, who taught at BC from 1967 to 1995 and was a pioneering force in psychiatric nursing, died in August.
Read a remembrance from Professor Ann Burgess