Academic Nurse The - Columbia University School of Nursing

26 • Academic Nurse
represented minorities in the field of
health services research.
Patricia Dykes, DNSc, the first
nursing informatics doctoral graduate
from Columbia university school
of nursing, was elected into the
American Academy of nursing.
dr. dykes was awarded the school’s
distinguished young Alumna award
shortly after graduation and was
the first nurse to receive the health
information management system
society Phd scholarship and had her
own individual nrsA. she is currently
the corporate manager of nursing
informatics & research at Partners
healthcare and on the faculty at
harvard university.
June
The School of Nursing received
funding approval for four $20,000
scholarships from the Jonas Nurse
Leaders Scholar Program, an initiative
of the Jonas Center for nursing
excellence. designed to improve
nurse recruitment and retention,
increase ethnic and racial diversity
among the nursing workforce,
advance innovative practice models,
and improve nursing practice settings,
this program will support 50
scholars by 2012 with a goal of reaching
100 nationwide. The following
incoming and current students will
receive $20,000 each over two years:
• Manuel Co Jr. III is director
of nursing informatics at nyu
hospitals. he holds a masters
degree from hunter College
and a second master’s in Clinical
epidemiology & health services
research from Weill Cornell
graduate school. he will work
with Suzanne Bakken, DNSc,
for his dissertation in nursing
informatics with a focus on underserved
populations.
• May Uchida is a msn graduate
from the nurse practitioner
program of yale university with a
specialty in geriatric nursing. her
research interest is in gerontology
nursing workforce shortage issues,
specifically related to factors for
recruiting, education, and retention
of advanced practice nurses.
her advisor is Patricia Stone, PhD,
an expert in nursing workforce
issues.
• Olivia Velez holds bachelor’s
and master’s degrees in computer
science (mount holyoke), and
a master’s in public health from
Columbia. she is now completing
her second year in the nursing
Phd program with an interest
in informatics related to mobile
health messaging as a health
promotion intervention for underserved
communities in the united
states and Africa. Dr. Bakken is
her advisor.
June 2010 CACC program
Nowai Keleekai
Nowai Keleekai is the student
recruiter for TrAnsiT, Cuson’s
hrsA-funded program to recruit
and retain underserved minority students
into health disparities research
careers. she has been accepted into
Cuson’s highly competitive predoctoral
fellowship program and
her dissertation will focus on mental
health needs of hiv-infected prisoners,
part of a larger project funded by
the nih grant of principle investigator
Elaine Larson, PhD.
The school hosted the Fifteenth
Invitational Conference on Assuring
Quality and Access in Advanced
Practice Nursing in yosemite national
Park, California. deans from schools
of nursing, nursing organization
officials and health policy experts
attended. discussions centered on
the national certification exam for
dnP graduates and the need for
increasing numbers of faculty
prepared to teach at the dnP
level.