Faculty Research Portfolio (Ph.D. List)

REBECCA BONI, Ph.D., RN, ACCNS-AG, OCN
Assistant Professor

 Dr. Boni is an advanced practice nurse with certification in oncology and as an adult- gerontology clinical nurse specialist (CNS). Her program of research focuses on oncology nurses' professional quality of life, including compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. She is also investigating the impact of COVID-19 on the role and professional quality of life of the CNSs in Michigan. She serves as the chair of Oncology Certified Nurse test development committee.

CARRIE BUCH, Ph.D., RN
Associate Dean, Associate Professor & Tenured
Program Assessment & Evaluation

Dr. Carrie Buch received her Ph.D. in Nursing from Wayne State University. Her research interests focus on nursing education specifically program evaluation and assessment. She is eager to mentor students interested in nursing education-focused research.

PATRICIA CAMERON, Ph.D., MS, RN
Associate Professor
Research Interest: Integration of Technology into Health Care Practice

Dr. Cameron received her Ph.D. from Wayne State University, a Masters in Community Health at University of Michigan, and her Bachelors of Nursing from Oakland University. Dr. Cameron is also certified as a Hospice and Palliative Registered Nurse. Her research has included remote patient and caregiver central line flushing, the use of electronic tablets with home-based hospice caregivers and dyspnea assessment and treatment.

KAREN DUNN, Ph.D., RN, FGSA
Professor, Tenured
Endowed Chair, Maggie Allesee Geriatric Nursing

Gerontology and Critical Care Nursing

Dr. Dunn received her Ph.D. in Nursing from Wayne State University, College of Nursing. Her program of research is in promoting wellness among older adult populations through the effective use of holistic self-care practices with an emphasis on spirituality, end-of-life care, and pain management. Current project involves the development of an evidenced-based checklist that long-term care facilities can utilize when implementing a dog therapy program.

Dr. Dunn has special interest in the geriatric population and has been awarded the position as Maggie Allesee Geriatric Nursing Endowed Chair. She has extensive experience as a faculty chair for graduate students’ research including topics such as: emotional intelligence and occupational stress in CRNAs, advanced practice registered nurses’ (APRNs’) level of knowledge in assessment and management of pre-diabetics, use of regional anesthesia in total knee arthroplasty, nurses’ knowledge regarding current care and chronic wound management practices, spiritual care practices of hospitalized patients, applying complexity theory to design new simulation models, resilience and ostomy adjustment, satisfaction with primary care among adult patients with chronic non-cancer pain, relocation stress syndrome, self-transcendence and medication adherence to antihypertensive medications, coping strategies among middle-eastern adult immigrants, APRN’s knowledge regarding heart disease in women, multi-sensory environmental interventions, the trajectory of terminal delirium at the end of life, APRN’s attitudes regarding urinary incontinence in older women, culture of caring, the lived experience of unexpected death of a child, self-care among patients with heart failure, and effects of electro-acupuncture and complementary/alternative medicine on pain intensity level.

OLGA EHRLICH, Ph.D., RN, CHPN
Assistant Professor

cancer pain, end-of-life symptom management, patient-driven goals in palliative care, hospice caring triad social processes

Dr. Ehrlich received her BSN from Arizona State University, her Ph.D. from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Phyllis F. Cantor Center in Nursing and Patient Care at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA. Prior to becoming a nurse, Dr. Ehrlich was a homebirth midwife. Her clinical career included working as a nurses’ aide, surgical technician, and Med-Surg ICU nurse before finding that her passion was palliative and hospice care, her board specialty. Dr.

Ehrlich’s program of research has focused on the intersections of perception, behavior, and social processes used by persons with end-stage cancers, their informal caregivers, and their nurses when managing pain, in order to identify and test interventions for poorly controlled cancer pain. She has taught students at all levels of nursing, developed and piloted a generalist palliative care curriculum for undergraduate students, presented her research and workshops on teaching palliative care at national symposia, and served as a manuscript and poster reviewer for journals and conferences. She is a member of Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association and the Palliative Care Research Cooperative. Appointed member, Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association Research Committee, 2023-2025.

Dr. Ehrlich looks forward to collaborative research with nurse and multidisciplinary scientists and practitioners, as well as engaging with students as they develop their authentic professional nursing personas.

ELLEN GAJEWSKI, Ph.D., MSN, RN, CNE, ACNS-BC, CHSE
Assistant Professor

English Language Learners in Nursing Education; Simulation in Nursing Education

Ms. Gajewski has been teaching at Oakland University since 2010, implementing innovative teaching strategies in her classrooms, including a flipped classroom, team- based learning, simulation, and piloting the use of an academic electronic health record. She also works with the clinical instructors at the junior level and has presented workshops for all of the clinical instructors in the undergraduate program.

TONI L. GLOVER, Ph.D., GNP-BC, ACHPN
Associate Professor

Geriatric Palliative Care, Communication Skills for Serious Illness, Primary Palliative Care Education

Dr. Glover is a researcher, an educator, and a geriatric nurse practitioner. Her research focuses on care of older adults, palliative care, communication skills, and pain. Dr. Glover has over 50 peer reviewed publications in journals such as the Western Journal of Nursing Research, Journal of Nursing Education, American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, the Clinical Journal of Pain, and Arthritis & Rheumatism. She is dedicated to sharing primary palliative care knowledge and skills with nursing students and was recently awarded $218,373 for a two-year project entitled, The Michigan ELNEC Initiative, funded by the Michigan Health Endowment Fund. The goal is to facilitate nursing students’ acquisition of primary palliative care knowledge and skills through partnership and collaboration between the Oakland University School of Nursing faculty and Michigan community college nursing programs.

In 2022, Dr. Glover received national recognition for her work to advance palliative care education with the ELNEC Award of Excellence. In 2020, Dr. Glover was honored with the Nightingale Award from the School of Nursing and the Faculty Award in Research from Oakland University. Dr. Glover serves the community as the Ascension Providence Rochester Hospital Endowed Professor, working with nursing leaders and practice partners to enhance opportunities for research and education. Dr. Glover is a member of the APRH Ethics Committee, the American Nurses Association, the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association, and Sigma Theta Tau – the international honor society for nursing.

MARY GOLINSKI, Ph.D., CRNA, FAANA
Associate Professor, Tenured
Oakland University Beaumont Graduate Program of Nurse Anesthesia

Quality Healthcare: Nurse Anesthesia, Patient Safety

Dr. Mary A. Golinski, a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) received her PhD in 2002 from Wayne State University College of Education, Department of Theoretical and Behavioral Foundations, in Educational Evaluation and Research (EER). The program encompasses educational statistics, research, measurement, and evaluation, which allowed her to make a significant and original contribution to the science of evaluation and research via her dissertation: Anesthesia Delivery in Office- Based Surgery: Quality of Care and Patient Satisfaction Outcomes.

Since completing her doctoral research, she has earned several accolades, including but not limited to, the Oakland University Board of Visitors Florence Nightingale award in Education and Research and numerous state and national scholarships by the American and Michigan Association of Nurse Anesthetists. Additionally, the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists- Foundation recognized Dr. Golinski by awarding her Researcher of the Year (as an original member of the nationally known AANA Closed Claim Team). Most recently Dr. Golinski was accepted as a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists and will be inducted in August 2021.

For more than two decades, Dr. Golinski has focused her research endeavors on anesthesia related scientific inquiry and outcomes based on anesthesia techniques, pharmacologic agents, technology, safety and quality processes, acute pain modalities and preventing chronic postsurgical pain. She has been published numerous times herself, and also collaborated extensively with graduate nurse anesthesia students, adding evidence-based knowledge that has served to improve anesthesia related outcomes.

MARGARET HARRIS, Ph.D., RN
Associate Professor, Tenured
Graduate Program Special Projects

Telehealth, Informatics, Patient Safety

Dr. Meghan Harris received a BSN from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a PhD in Nursing from Wayne State University. Dr. Harris has clinical expertise in pediatric nursing while her research area has evolved from pediatric simulation in nursing education to healthcare informatics and patient safety with a current focus on Telehealth. Her recently funded research examined nurses’ satisfaction with the barcode medication administration (BCMA) system, workarounds, satisfaction, patient safety culture, compliance and medication errors. Currently, Dr. Harris is working on efforts to fund and implement telehealth in both simulation and clinical practice for undergraduate nursing students and nurse practitioner students.

ZORICA KAURIC-KLEIN, Ph.D., RN, ANP, ACLS/BCLS
Associate Professor

Quality Healthcare, Dialysis & Hypertension

Dr. Kauric-Klein is a graduate of the Wayne State University College of Nursing where she received her Ph.D. in Nursing. Her research focuses on improving blood pressure control in hypertensive patients on chronic hemodialysis. Specifically, her research focuses on decreasing cardiovascular risk and interventions to improve adherence to self-care behaviors in the hypertensive hemodialysis population. She has served as the Principal Investigator for this research which was the focus of her dissertation and included patients from six hemodialysis units across metropolitan Detroit. Dr. Kauric- Klein has recently received funding from the American Nephrology Nurses' Association to help fund a pilot study Investigating, "The Effect of a Yoga Intervention on Physical and Psychological Outcomes in Patients on Chronic Hemodialysis”. Dr. Kauric-Klein also plans to study an educational self-regulation intervention to decrease sodium consumption in a chronic hemodialysis population and investigate the effect on blood pressure control.

SUHA KRIDLI, Ph.D., RN
Professor

Vulnerable Populations, Arab Americans

Dr. Suha Kridli is a nurse researcher at Oakland University School of Nursing who has focused on health beliefs and practices of Arab-Americans in the metropolitan Detroit area. Her research has been funded, by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan, for multiple community-based studies involving the Middle Eastern population.

JULIE A. KRUSE, Ph.D., MS, RN
Professor, Tenured

Education Innovations: Diversity & Cultural Competence

Dr. Julie Kruse is an Associate Professor and Nursing Workforce Diversity (NWD) grant project director at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. Her nursing background spans over 25 years with 16 years of public health experience. Dr. Kruse’s research dealing with vulnerable populations has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Advanced Nursing, Military Medicine, and the International Journal of Childbirth.

Dr. Kruse has participated in five diversity-related HRSA funded grant projects over the past 16 years and served as Project Director during her last several involvements with HRSA NWD grants. The purpose of the current Oakland University Nursing Workforce Diversity project, Achieving Success through Professionalism, Integrity, Resilience, and Engagement (ASPIRE), is to increase nursing progression and graduation rates and retention in practice for students who are from diverse and/or disadvantaged backgrounds--specifically those from racial and ethnic minorities underrepresented among RNs.

Dr. Kruse was elected to serve as Chair-Elect for the American Public Health Association Public Health Nursing Section and she was also nominated and serves as a member of AACN’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Group (DEIG). As a member of DEIG, she has been able to influence nursing curriculum and learning for nursing students nationally and worked to develop curriculum standards related to cultural competency.

She has disseminated research and scholarly activities at over 40 local, state, national, or international organizational conferences or events (19 by invitation). Dr. Kruse has received $8,7019,777 worth of internal/external grant funding in her career with almost all of this funding for initiatives and research related to justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. This funding has resulted in 20 projects where she was the primary investigator and 5 projects where she was a co-investigator. She has had 8 publications in the last 18 months with 7 focused on justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and 1 manuscript currently under review.

SARAH NEWTON, Ph.D., RN
Associate Professor

Dr. Sarah Newton received her Ph.D. in Nursing from the University of Michigan (U-M) in 1997. While a doctoral student at the U-M, Dr. Newton had the privilege of working with Dr. Carol Loveland-Cherry, as well as two great nurse theorists – Dr. Ann Whall and Dr. Donna Algase. Dr. Newton’s clinical nursing specialty is adult liver transplantation and her research and scholarship focus on adult liver transplant recipients’ lived experiences post-transplant. Writing about the discipline of nursing, specifically issues of relevance to baccalaureate nursing education (e.g. student/program outcomes and pedagogy), are also a current interest of Dr. Newton's, and she is a reviewer for several nursing education journals, including Journal of Professional Nursing, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, and Nursing Education Perspectives.

JULIA PAUL, Ph.D., RN, ACNS-BC, CCRN, CWS, NP
Associate Professor

 Chronc Wounds and Wound-related Itch: Omic Science

Dr. Julia Paul received her bachelor's degree from Valparaiso University and her master's and doctoral degrees from Wayne State University. Her dissertation work focused on itch that occurs with chronic wounds. Her more recent work has focused on metabolomic analysis of wound fluid, wound debris, and serum to determine physiological differences in specimens of persons with and without itch related to their venous ulcers. Additionally, Dr. Paul has been a co-investigator with Dr. Judith Fouladbakhsh and other faculty and students for a study regarding self-treatment of symptoms by community-dwelling older adults. Results have been presented nationally and internationally. Dr. Paul has participated in the National Institute of Nursing Research's Summer Genetics Institute and Oakland University's PI Academy. She has received funding from Sigma Theta Tau, Oakland University's Faculty Research Award, and the School of Nursing's pilot funding and is working toward submission for funding through the National Institute of Health (NIH). Her areas of interest include chronic wounds, wound management, itch and other symptoms, omics.

Dr. Paul is the co-founder and continuing co-chair of the Research Focus and Support Group at OU's School of Nursing, which aims to strengthen and support research initiatives among faculty and students. She worked in collaboration with Dr. Fouladbakhsh to explore research activities and interests among OU faculty and continues to work with graduate and undergraduate students on various research projects.

RON PISCOTTY, Ph.D., RN-BC, CNE, FAMIA
Associate Professor

University School of Nursing. His research interest centers around the impact that healthcare information technologies have on nursing practice and quality and safety in hospital settings. Dr. Piscotty has numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and has delivered numerous peer reviewed scholarly presentations at many regional, national, and international conferences. His work, research, and contributions have been highlighted in multiple local and national publications. Dr. Piscotty has received internal and external funding for his research. He has taught courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. He is a member of professional organizations including the American Medical Informatics Association, where he was inducted as Fellow in 2019 and Sigma Theta Tau. Dr. Piscotty has served in leadership roles for the Alliance for Nursing Informatics and Midwest Nursing Research Society. Dr. Piscotty is board certified in Nursing Informatics from the American Nurse Credentialing Center and a Certified Nurse Educator from the National League for Nursing. Dr. Piscotty identifies as Native American and is a Tribal Member of The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

LAURA PITTIGLIO, Ph.D., RN
Associate Professor, Tenured
Ph.D. Program Director

Vulnerable Populations: HIV & Learned Helplessness, & LGBTQ

Dr. Laura Pittiglio received her Ph.D. in Nursing from Wayne State University (2007). Her research interests include coping mechanisms of African American mothers who are living with HIV/AIDS, sexual risk-taking behaviors that put young African American women in jeopardy of contracting HIV, the impact of learned helplessness on decisions regarding sexual risk-taking behaviors, and the use of simulation to improve nursing student knowledge and culturally competent LGBTQ care.