Eight faculty and alumni from the Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing will be among the distinguished nurse leaders inducted into the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) 2023 Class of Fellows.
The inductees will be recognized at the Academy’s annual conference in October in Washington, D.C.
Induction into the American Academy of Nursing is a significant milestone in which past and current accomplishments are honored by colleagues within and outside the profession. The newest Emory inductees join 74 School of Nursing alumni and faculty who are Academy Fellows.
“Being named an American Academy of Nursing Fellow is one of nursing’s highest honors,” says Linda McCauley, PhD, RN, FAAN, FRCN, dean of the School of Nursing. “But it is even more. It is a signal of the tremendous expertise that individuals bring to the nursing profession, and an indicator of the contributions they will continue to make to nursing policy, research, administration, practice and academia. I congratulate these newest Academy Fellows and appreciate their work among us.”
The 2023 School of Nursing faculty inductees include:
Christina Calamaro, PhD, PPCNP-BC, FNP-BC, FAANP
Associate Professor (Clinical Track)
Calamaro is a leading pediatric nurse practitioner with a research focus on obesity, sleep, cultural proficiency, and APRN care in the pediatric population. She has significantly impacted national pediatric nursing practice through her research and leadership contributions to the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP). She was a founding member of the Pediatric Nurse Scientist Collaborative, created to unite pediatric nurse scientists through national collaboration to enrich interdisciplinary scientific inquiry and transform the care of pediatric patients and their families.
Roxana Chicas, PhD, RN
Assistant Professor (Tenure Track)
Chicas’ research is shaping the future of climate and occupational health science, two pressing fields of scientific inquiry. A sought-after scientist with features in Bloomberg News, NPR, and The World, she conducted the first field-based intervention study of methods to reduce core body temperature using real-time biomonitoring equipment among farmworkers in the United States. She has collaborated with the Center for American Progress and the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environment to advocate for climate change policy solutions. As a bilingual, bicultural nurse scientist, she is committed to conducting research that informs policy to advance environmental justice.
Calli Cook, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, FAANP
Associate Professor (Clinical Track)
Cook's clinical work is focused on improving the quality of care in neurology. Her work has reduced unnecessary neuroimaging in patients with migraine and other primary headache disorders. She served on the national quality measures task force for headache medicine, a collaboration between the American Headache Society and the American Academy of Neurology. Additionally, she served as chair of the Consortium of Neurology Advanced Practice Providers within the American Academy of Neurology. Her work evaluates best practices in headache care and models of care utilizing the advanced practice provider workforce to enhance the patient experience.
Sara Edwards, PhD, MN, MPH, CNM, FACNM
Associate Professor (Clinical Track)
Edwards has devoted her 35-year career to transforming nurse-midwifery research, education, and clinical practice. Her most outstanding contribution to nursing has been her pioneering research of the gut microbiome. This NIH-funded research focuses on the maternal brain-gut axis and gestational weight gain in the perinatal population most at-risk - Black women and their infants. Throughout her 20 years as faculty at Emory University, her work has extended to research protocols, educational programs, and multidisciplinary practices worldwide, which has enhanced the global visibility of nursing science. Her clinical leadership in various settings, including as a founding midwife of the Atlanta Birth Center, together with her academic focus have informed her work at state, national, and international levels.
Nicholas Giordano, PhD, RN
Assistant Professor (Tenure Track)
As a nurse and pain scientist, Giordano and his federally funded interdisciplinary teams work to advance the standardization and utilization of patient-reported outcomes, which can be used to inform individualized pain management across health care settings. A key focus of this research is centered on evaluating the impact of multimodal opioid-sparing pain management interventions. His research also focuses on characterizing biopsychosocial symptom trajectories that can be utilized to stratify individuals at risk for experiencing poor health outcomes and to inform the timely delivery of targeted interventions. His areas of research expertise include acute and chronic care, mental health, symptom science, and veterans’ health.
Shawana Moore, DNP, APRN, WHNP-BC
Associate Professor (Clinical Track), Doctor of Nursing Program Director
Moore is a nationally recognized, board-certified women’s health nurse practitioner who specializes in providing women’s and gender-related care throughout the lifespan. She has developed a nurse-led mentorship program to support the healthy growth and development of adolescent girls in underserved communities, and she serves on national boards and committees dedicated to women’s health care. Her research interests include women’s health, gender-affirming care, environmental/climate as it relates to women’s health, adolescent female empowerment, pre-pregnancy counseling, well-woman care, contraception, maternal obesity, gynecological disorders, telehealth in the women’s health care setting, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Kelly Wiltse Nicely, PhD, CRNA, FAANA
Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) Program Director
Wiltse Nicely is the inaugural program director for Emory’s Nurse Anesthesia DNP Program. In this role, she has facilitated inclusion of underrepresented racial and socioeconomic groups among DNP students and increased access to lifesaving care for rural and underserved populations by placing more graduates in these environments. Her body of research addresses the association between intraoperative opioid administration and postoperative opioid use disorders, and her work is dedicated to preventing the new onset of chronic pain as well as post-surgical opioid use disorders. Wiltse Nicely is a nationally recognized leader who has served the nurse anesthesia profession in multiple national roles, including as an American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology Foundation Closed Claims researcher and an educator director on the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs.
Alumna Maeve Howett, PhD, APRN, CPNP-PC, CNE, professor of family and community health at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, was also named to the 2023 class, joining Chicas, Cook and Edwards as School of Nursing alumni inductees. Howett’s area of specialization is pediatric nursing, and her research interests include breastfeeding and human lactation, care for vulnerable populations and children, toxicant exposures, undergraduate nursing education, and curriculum design and evaluation. She has earned BSN, MSN and PhD degrees from the School of Nursing and also served on the faculty from 2006-2016.
The newest AAN Fellows represent 40 states, the District of Columbia, and 13 countries and join more than 3,000 nursing leaders. The Academy is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
“The Academy continues to convene and celebrate nurses who make extraordinary contributions to improve health through the generation, synthesis and dissemination of nursing knowledge,” says ANN President Kenneth R. White, PhD, RN, AGACNP, ACHPN, FACHE, FAAN. “This year’s group of inductees truly represents today’s thought leaders and the diversity of our profession’s policy leaders, practitioners, educators and innovators. Each Fellow of the Academy is changing the future of health and health care through their support to advance equity, promote inclusion, and lift up the next generation of nurses, advancing the Academy’s vision of healthy lives for all people.”