Bridging the gap between patient care and scientific discovery
The Roswell Park/University at Buffalo Oncology Nurse Scientist Training Program will provide unique opportunities for nurse-scientists to gain hands-on experience in translational oncology research while benefiting from mentorship by some of the nation’s leading cancer researchers.
This program is the first of its kind established by an Institutional Clinical Scientist Awards (K12) grant from the National Cancer Institute and will support two to three PhD nurses per year, offering two years of highly personalized, advanced research training in oncology.
Preparing nurse scientists to lead the future of oncology research
With the support of a dedicated team of mentors from Roswell Park and UB’s School of Nursing, trainees will gain the knowledge and experience needed to launch independent research careers that address critical issues in cancer research, care and health equity. Each trainee will have a Nurse-Researcher as either a Mentor or Co-mentor on their committee.
The program is designed to build a pipeline of expert nurse-scientists by attracting and recruiting nurses to lead groundbreaking studies that will improve treatment outcomes and survivorship for cancer patients.
Trainees can choose from two areas of research focus:
- Immuno-oncology/Biological Mechanisms
- Oncology Care/Patient Experience
Research aims
Aim 1: Mentored research in “high-priority” areas
This program looks to provide a variety of mentored research experiences to train PhD (or PhD equivalent) nurses in cancer research. Trainees will pick a main project that aligns with two areas of research: Immuno-oncology/Biological Mechanisms or Oncology Care/Patient Experience. Trainees will also receive training in other areas as desired.
Aim 2: Personalized career development
We will provide our trainees a wide range of career development opportunities. These include, but are not limited to grant writing, developing advanced research methods and networking.
Eligibility requirements
- Completion of a PhD (or PhD equivalent such as Doctor of Nursing Science (DNS) or Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) with submission of the Dissertation Abstract and relevant publications (or expected completion by July 2025)
- Submission of academic records and
- An NIH-style Biosketch including a personal statement describing the applicant’s career goals and how training in oncology will further these goals; this should include the names of 3 potential mentors or research areas of interest.
- 3 Letters of Recommendation
- A minimum of 2,000 hours of adult oncology nursing experience or appropriate equivalent experience in a related health related experience
- Must be eligible for New York State Registered Nurses License
- Must be US citizens, naturalized citizens, or permanent residents as required by the K12 opportunity.
Apply
Program mentors
Kafui Agbemenu PhD, MPH, RN , CTN-A
Her research focuses on examining the reproductive health outcomes of African immigrant and refugee women. Specifically, she conducts research on culturally-congruent family planning education, contraceptive decision making and uptake, pregnancy outcomes, HIV stigma reduction and access to reproductive health care services for African immigrant and refugee women. She is also interested in focusing on women’s cancers such as ovarian cancer.
Suzanne S. Dickerson PhD, RN
Suzanne Dickerson is a full professor who is an expert in in qualitative methods that are central to translational and pragmatic research. Her hermeneutic phenomenological studies provide evidence that the inclusion of the patient/person perspective provides the scaffolding to understand the importance of context and stakeholder participation, which is pivotal in improving interventions and outcomes to promote health and welfare. Her research focuses on patient/technology interactions, including telemedicine for persons with opioid use disorder being treated for Hepatitis C, cancer patients using internet to seek help and support, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator recipients, sleep apnea patients using CPAP and mixed methods using phenomenology to study sleep disturbances in cancer survivors.
Sharon Hewner, PhD, RN, FAAN
Her research focuses on the interaction between nurse care coordinators, patients and their caregivers at the time of hospital discharge. Hewner’s team, which includes primary care physicians, nurse researchers and engineers, examines how technology and health information exchange can improve the delivery of person-centered care during the transition to post-discharge settings.
Daniel Jackson Smith PhD, AGNP-BC, CNE
Smith’s research program examines the effects of multiple environmental exposures on human health. He has conducted studies to better understand 1) the impact of occupational heat exposure on kidney health and 2) lead exposure on a broad set of community health outcomes. Smith holds methodological expertise that bridges the worlds of community-based participatory research with Spanish-speaking populations and data science. He has conducted quantitative analyses including natural language processing (e.g., sentiment analysis and topic modeling), network analysis and machine learning (e.g., conditional inference trees and random forests). He is interested in mentoring the next generation of oncology nurse scientists who are interested in exploring the intersection of environmental health and/or data science with the mentees chosen area of study.
Darryl Somayaji PhD, RN, VND, CRC
Somayaji’s research focuses on identifying gaps in equitable health care and understanding barriers to critical cancer services including prevention, screening, treatment and supportive care. This lack of access to necessary health programs and services continues to be the biggest challenge to reduce burden of cancer and improving quality of life, especially in underserved populations. Somayaji is working to correct this challenge and to provide proper care to all and believes novel strategies, new programs and interventions are essential to ensure health equity in a complex and evolving health care system.
Carleara Weiss PhD, MS, RN
Dr. Weiss is a Nurse scientist trained in behavioral sleep medicine and geriatric care with experience in med-surgical oncology. She is interested in exploring the mechanisms of cognitive decline and promoting sleep health by sing interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy dietary supplementation , bright light therapy and exercise. She is also exploring the benefits of supplementation with nicotinamide riboside (NR) a form of Vitamin B3 on sleep and cognitive function and the and its impact on serum-based and proteomic-based biomarkers of neurodegeneration.
