College of Nursing Research

Dr. Alexandrov is the leading international nursing expert in acute stroke. Her research has two primary areas of focus: testing interventions to optimize blood flow and disability outcomes in patients with acute stroke and exploring innovative methods to optimize the health systems where stroke patients are managed. She has received many awards, including being inducted into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame by Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing in 2026, and receiving the Outstanding Nurse Scientist and Mentor Award from the Council on the Advancement of Nursing Science of the American Academy of Nursing in 2024. She was selected to receive the Research Article of the Year Award in 2026 by the Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing for her article on the ZODIAC trial in JAMA Neurology.

Dr. Anderson’s research targets the relationship between patient-clinician communication practices and clinical and quality of life outcomes among Black women with chronic health conditions, specifically breast cancer and vulvovaginal and pelvic pain. She is the Co-PI of a three-year, $1.58 million industry-sponsored grant to investigate multilevel barriers to healthcare access and utilization among Black women with advanced-stage breast cancer (Stage IIIB, IIIC, and Stage IV) and those with elevated risk for breast disease in the U.S. Mid-South region. She is also a co-investigator of a study to explore patient-clinician communication and service receipt challenges among Black women diagnosed with vulvar lichen sclerosis.

Dr. Lisa Beasley conducts research that advances healthcare access for rural and underserved populations through forensic nursing, community-engaged partnerships, and healthcare workforce development. Her work integrates education, practice, and implementation science to expand access to high-quality care, strengthen the nursing workforce, and improve outcomes for individuals and communities across Tennessee and beyond.

Dr. Cao's methodological research focuses on developing and applying statistical methods to integrate multi-omics data in cancer research. In collaboration with investigators at the University of Florida and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, he studies pharmacogenomics to identify molecular determinants of treatment response and improve outcomes for children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In addition, he provides statistical collaboration and methodological support to investigators across the College of Nursing.

Dr. Cashion has been exploring genetic markers’ to predict clinical outcomes for more than 25 years. Her previously funded research and clinical interests target genetic/genomic and environmental components associated with outcomes of organ transplantation. She has served as Scientific Director of NINR’s Division of Intramural Research and acting director of NINR/NIH.  Dr. Cashion is a well-known scientist and leader with numerous awards and recognitions.  She has more than 50 publications and serves as a scientific reviewer for multiple journals and professional organizations. 

Dr. Dangerfield is a prevention scientist whose research is grounded in Life Course Theory and focuses on sexual epidemiology among racial and sexual minority populations. His work advances understanding of HIV/STI prevention and care in the United States while examining how social, structural, and developmental factors shape health across the lifespan.

Dr. Day's research has advanced pediatric nursing worldwide through innovative programs for sickle cell disease and pediatric oncology. Her evidence-based work has improved patient outcomes, informed international nursing standards implemented in 31 countries, and generated influential scholarship, competitive grant funding, and prestigious honors recognizing her sustained global impact on nursing practice. She was inducted into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.

Dr. Dedmon’s research centers on nurse-led healthcare delivery models that improve access to primary care and address health disparities in rural and underserved populations. Her scholarship focuses on evaluating innovative models of community-based care, including mobile health units, while advancing experiential learning opportunities that prepare nursing students to practice in rural settings. Her work bridges clinical practice, education, and evidence-based practice innovation to improve health outcomes and strengthen the rural healthcare workforce.

Since 2014, Dr. Gill’s research has evolved to advance nursing science by designing approaches to strengthen nursing theory education across BSN and DNP curricula. Building on her earlier work in health literacy and development of an adverse childhood experiences curricular integration model, Dr. Gill’s current studies focus on how faculty value theory and their readiness to teach nursing theory; and the analysis of historical documents and artifacts regarding Margaret Newman’s Nursing Theory Think Tanks during the nursing Grand Theory movement. Dr. Gill will extend her research to help prepare faculty to teach  nursing theory and to test high-impact teaching strategies for nursing theory education with students across undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral nursing programs. 

Dr. Girdwood is a social scientist and health services researcher with a clinical nursing background. Her research focuses on improving transitional care management, care coordination services, patient navigation, and health outcomes for at-risk populations. She is particularly interested in improving services and policies regarding the transition from pediatric to adult healthcare for adolescents and young adults with chronic conditions. She has experience conducting quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies, primary and secondary analyses, as well as utilizing medical record data, national datasets, and other data sources.

Dr. Graff's research focuses on the influence of prenatal and early childhood environments on health and developmental trajectories across childhood. She is the director of the PhD in Nursing Science program and has experience in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research methodology. She is the co-principal investigator for the Shelby County Relative Caregiver program. 

research and scholarly activities are grounded in public/population health nursing shaped by extensive practice and leadership experience within local governmental public health, a large multi-state pediatric health system, and academia.  She focuses on the development, implementation, and evaluation of practice relevant strategies that strengthen community capacity to improve health for all. She has developed a complementary line of nursing history scholarship that uses archival research, oral history, and narrative inquiry to illuminate the role of nurses and, particularly, public health nurses throughout history.

As a certified family nurse practitioner, Dr. Likes has focused on cancer and pre-invasive gynecologic conditions in her early research. She also founded the Center for HPV and Dysplasia at Regional One Health. In recent years, her research focus has been on rural health and workforce development. She is the principal investigator for the Tennessee Rural Health Care Center of Excellence.

Dr. Rose’s research program utilizes immunometabolism to investigate how immune cell bioenergetics drive systemic inflammation in childhood obesity and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Her studies in obesity aim to identify early immunometabolic shifts occurring prior to the onset of glucose intolerance in order to find novel therapeutic targets that halt metabolic decline. In ASD, she focuses on mapping the relationships between immune-metabolic biomarkers and clinical phenotypes to identify distinct subtypes of the disorder.

Dr. Sebastian's research focuses on improving the identification, evaluation, and outcomes of patients experiencing violence, abuse, and trauma through advancements in forensic nursing education, clinical practice, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her scholarship emphasizes the development of innovative educational strategies, simulation-based learning, and evidence-based approaches to strengthen the forensic nursing workforce, expand access to high-quality medical forensic care in rural and underserved communities, and improve the recognition and management of child maltreatment and other forms of interpersonal violence.

Dr. Sublette is a family nurse practitioner at the University of Tennessee-Regional One Physicians Group’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine clinic, providing comprehensive care for pregnant women living with HIV. Dr. Sublette serves as a research consultant with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's Department of Infectious Diseases and a co-investigator for perinatal and neonatal clinical trials through the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network. Her research interests include HIV prevention, depression, anxiety, antiretroviral adherence and pharmacokinetics, and sexual assault.