Research Programs
The faculty at UTHSC College of Nursing have been exceedingly successful at securing funding for a variety of programs of research. In addition to NIH funding, our researchers have been awarded significant funding from private and public foundations and corporations. Links on researchers' names will navigate to their faculty profiles with the College of Nursing.
Dr. Cashion’s funded research and clinical interests target genetic/genomic and environmental components associated with outcomes of organ transplantation.
Dr. Cashion’s most recently funded study (R01 NR9270) combines emerging technologies (microarrays) and behavioral questionnaires to investigate gene-environment interactions leading to obesity in recipients of kidney transplantations during the first year after transplant. Findings from this research are informing an intervention study that will incorporate healthy eating and activity into a program to prevent weight gain in kidney transplant recipients.
Dr. Cowan’s research examines bio-behavioral linkages among adolescents and adults in the community. Her research interests include interventions in adolescents and adults (healthy, obese, kidney and kidney-pancreas transplant recipients, and individuals with diabetes) to promote weight loss, improve functional capacity, and improve cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes.
Dr. Cowan’s current research focuses on interaction between physical activity, diet, genetics, insulin resistance, and obesity to predict impaired glucose tolerance and cardiovascular risk in overweight minority youth.
- Bio-behavioral linkages associated with cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes
- Examination of interactions between behaviors (diet, physical activity), genetics, and biological factors in predicting impaired glucose tolerance and cardiac risk of overweight minority youth
- Interventions in adolescents and adult populations (healthy, obese, kidney and kidney-pancreas transplant recipients, individuals with diabetes) to promote weight loss, functional capacity, and/or improve cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes
Dr. Hathaway has been investigating bio-behavioral linkages to quality of life outcomes following organ transplantation since the late-1980s. During this time she has amassed approximately $7 million in external funding as a principle investigator, and by serving as a sponsor of multiple Career Development Awards, several Minority Faculty Supplements, and other grant applications she enabled her mentees at the University of Tennessee to acquire an additional $5 million of external funding. During her early NIH sponsored work, Dr. Hathaway and her team focused on identifying predictors of quality of life related outcomes for kidney transplant recipients. These predictors (post-transplant re-hospitalization, social support, and employment) were subsequently addressed by an intervention which, during a NIH funded trial, was able to demonstrate a significant improvement in quality of life outcomes. Additional bio-behavioral outcomes associated with quality of life following organ transplantation that have been topics of investigation for Dr. Hathaway and her team have included: new onset diabetes, weight gain, autonomic neuropathy, cardiac Function, renal function, side effects of immunosuppressant therapy, and gastric function.
Dr. Graff is interested in families of children with or at risk for intellectual and developmental disabilities. She focuses her research on parent-child interaction, parent communication with siblings of children with intellectual and development disabilities, and grandparents caring for children with and at risk for developmental disabilities.
Dr. Wendy Likes’ program of research focuses on women’s health, lower genital tract disease, and outcomes of medical interventions. Dr. Likes’ most recently funded study (K23 NR009968), a prospective year long- study, predicts of quality of life and sexual function in women who undergo vulvar surgeries. Dr. Likes serves as a co-investigator (PI, Speck)on a National Institute of Justice-funded grant evaluating post-coital DNA recovery. She also has funding to evaluate the efficacy of vaginal dilatation to maintain vaginal patency in cervical cancer patients and a study evaluating field effect of HPV in women with intraepithelial neoplasia.
Ramsey, Risa D.
Dr. Ramsey’s research interests are in the area of high risk pregnancies with a concentration on preterm labor, preterm birth, preeclampsia, and other hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.
Dr. Ramsey is currently performing an industry sponsored study to investigate the ability of newly developed assays to aid in the diagnosis of preeclampsia. Dr. Ramsey serves as a co-investigator on a state funded study to evaluate biological, behavioral, and psychosocial outcomes in pregnant patients receiving group (Centering Pregnancy®) versus individual prenatal care in an urban population. Dr. Ramsey also serves as a co-investigator on a locally funded observational study of children and their environment to determine the effects of the behavioral, social, economic, cultural, genetic, and environmental conditions on brain development in children from the perinatal period to three years of age. Dr. Ramsey was the Site Co-Principal Investigator of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Cooperative Agreement Award (7 U01 DP000187) to look at race, ethnicity, immunity, functional genomics, and proteomic markers of preterm delivery in a high risk pregnant population. Study recruitment for this study has just completed and data analysis is currently being performed.
Dr. Speck's program of translational research is in the area of sexual and domestic violence with a concentration on the health of victimized individuals who articulate with health care providers in community settings in distinct populations across the lifespan. In the most recent project, Dr. Speck has been funded by the Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice Office of Justice Programs to evaluate the timing of post-coital DNA recovery using proxy fertile monogamous couples (2010-12). Dr. Speck (PI) has also been funded to study workforce development in public health programs (2009-12). Dr. Speck (PI) has been funded by the Shelby County Drug Court Foundation to evaluate client health and relationships to adverse childhood experiences (2006-09). Findings from this research resulted in development of the term "never-served" to describe individuals not counted by health systems until catastrophic and expensive events occurred. She has been funded as a consultant to Research Triangle Institute Forensic Science Section (PI- Ropero-Miller) where she coined and conceptualized the term "surrendered rape" during the development of a translational webinar on incapacitated and drug facilitated rape. She is currently working on the reliability of several tools to support patient-centered care in forensic public health nursing practice.
Dr. Wicks’ program of research focuses on and health disparities broadly, and African American women who are caregivers to a chronically ill relative specifically.
Her most recently funded study, a randomized control trial (1 R15 NR008875-01A1) tests the efficacy of INSIGHT (a cognitive behavioral group intervention) and its influence on symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as caregiver function.
Dr. Wicks is also co-investigator on a National Institutes of Health, National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities grant (1 P20 MD005118-01) that resulted in the development of a Health Disparities Exploratory Center of Excellence (PI, White-Means) and a consultant on a National Cancer Institute grant (1R03CA138136-01A1) focused on prostate cancer in African Americans (PI, Ukoli).
For questions about the PhD program, contact Dr. Carolyn Graff, Director of the PhD Program, by email [jgraff@uthsc.edu] or telephone 901-448-6544 or 800-733-2498.
To discuss potential employment opportunities, contact the Dean of the College of Nursing by telephone 901-448-6135 or 800-733-2498
Quick Links
Research Centers
Center for Health Evaluation & Lifestyle Promotion (HELP Center)
Research Collaborating Centers
Center of Genomics & Bioinformatics
Contact Information
UTHSC College of Nursing
920 Madison Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38163
901-448-6128
Fax: 901-448-4121
Toll Free: 800-733-2498
