Emory faculty honored by Southern Nursing Research Society

Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing faculty members Mi-Kyung Song, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Rasheeta Chandler, PhD, ARNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, will each be honored at the 2019 Annual Conference of the Southern Nursing Research Society on February 27 to March 1, 2019 in Orlando, Fla.

“Drs. Song and Chandler are exceptional nursing research leaders at our school,” says Linda McCauley, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAAOHN, dean of the Emory School of Nursing. “Their influential work reaches far beyond Emory University. They are actively improving the lives of vulnerable populations with their research.”

Professor Song will receive the Distinguished Researcher Award for her more than two decades of work developing end-of-life nursing interventions domestically and internationally. Her commitment to improving the lives of people within this population is evidenced by her publication of a huge volume of research articles in top-tier research journals. The external funding she’s secured through more than 20 organizations, including six National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, seven non-NIH grants and numerous foundation and intramural grants totals over $11 million.

Most recently, Dr. Song was awarded two 5-year, $6.4 million NIH R01 grants to expand and implement her advance care planning approach known as, "Sharing Patient's Illness Representation to Increase Trust," or SPIRIT. Unlike traditional advance care plans, Dr. Song’s SPIRIT methodology does not simply focus on the patient experience or documenting wishes. It accounts for all – patients, families, and providers -- who will be affected by the disease as it progresses.

Assistant Professor Chandler will receive the Research in Minority Health Award from SNRS for her research focused on integrating smartphone technology into delivering sex education to adolescents and emerging adults with the goal of reducing health disparities. She has a passion for working extensively within African American religious organizations throughout the Southeastern U.S. to provide health assessments, HIV testing and education on a spectrum of health concerns, including heart disease and diabetes. Dr. Chandler’s 18 research journal articles and 39 research abstracts also demonstrate an unwavering dedication to this work.

Her most recent funding award saw Dr. Chandler serving as sub-award principal investigator on an NIH National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) grant exploring preferences and prototypes of a mobile HIV prevention app for African American women – a group disproportionately affected by HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Dr. Chandler’s work examines innovative solutions, such as advertising and media messaging, to continue to deliver HIV prevention interventions to young African American women.