Fellowship in Health Policy and Media
The Fellowship in Health Policy and Media has two aims: 1. To increase the health policy knowledge, skills and scholarship of Fellows and 2. To increase the visibility of nurses in the media by improving the skills of healthcare professionals, researchers, and journalists in disseminating their expertise.
The Fellowship is a year-long (beginning July 1), non-residential, unpaid program. Each Fellow is paired with a GW Nursing faculty mentor with similar areas of scholarship and, in collaboration with their mentor, Fellows design their own projects. The application cycle is currently closed and will reopen spring 2025.
2023-2024 Fellows
We are excited to welcome and congratulate our current cohort of fellows!
- Nikki E. Akparewa
- Blandine Augustin
- Lilian Bravo
- Anna Dermenchyan
- Taneika Duhaney
- Carrie Langley
- Milisa Manojlovich
- Sterling Wilmer
Fellowship Presentations
Fellowship 2023 Final Presentations
Date: June 6th, 12PM-1:30PM ET
Presenters: 2022-2023 Health Policy and Media Fellows
Fellowship 2022 Final Presentations
Date: June 24th, 11AM - 2PM ET
Presenter: 2021-2022 Health Policy and Media Fellows
Past Fellows and Accomplishments
- Lisa Beasley, DNP, APRN, FNP-C (2021-2023)
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Mentor: Melissa Batchelor
Project topic overview:
- Create a podcast
- That’s Healthful Podcast
- Target audience – providers & general public
- 80 + fully produced episodes, tracking with metrics for success
- Promotion with social media, utilize graphic design
- Soliciting funding
- Had other fellows / mentors as guest speakers
- Expert content guests from all over the country
- Use of social media for promotion:
- Website: https://
thatshealthful.com/ - Facebook: www.facebook.com/
thatshealthful - X, formerly known as Twitter: @nowhealthful
- Instagram: @thatshealthful
- Website: https://
- Hildegart Gonzalez, PhD (2021-2023)
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Mentor: Ric Ricciardi
Project topic overviews and outcomes:
- The journalistic narrative and the nursing narrative around nursing in the media and on social networks
- The nursing sector in media and Social Media: knowledge, uses, expectations, attitudes, risks and opportunities. Nurses’ mass media and social media communications competencies development
- Protocol accepted in PROSPERO “Nursing in social media and mass media: risks and opportunities. A systematic review”
- Publication in TESELA (nursing management journal in Spain): Nurses’ communicative competence: key to achieving a narrative of their own
- Political and decision-making competence in nurses
- Interprofessional team received Nursing Management Research award in Spain given by national association of nursing managers
- Systematic review to identify what scientific evidence exists on the training nurses receive for participation and political decision making
Named a finalist, by the Consejo General de Colegios Oficiales de Enfermeria de Espana, for "person outside the profession who has contributed most to the field of nursing"
- Kasey Jordan, RN, PhD (2021-2023)
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Mentor: Joyce Pulcini
Project topic overview:
- School nurse innovation leadership during the COVID-19 response and how school nurse leadership uses media
- Interviews and conversations with school nurses nationwide on perception of rule, use of media, and influence of media on the profession
- Publication: School Nurse Perceptions of Continuing Education: Identifying the Process of Engagement
- Council of Public Health Nursing Organizations blog post: Moving the Conversation on Climate Change
- Interview with MUSC publication – Nurse researcher tracks innovation in school public health settings
- That’s Healthful podcast guest
- Danielle Altares Sarik, PhD, APRN, CPNP-PC (2021-2023)
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Mentor: Ashley Darcy-Mahoney
Project topic overview:
- Using media to emphasize the role of innovative nurse-led interventions in addressing barriers to care in pediatrics
- Media campaign to highlight role of nurses at the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital
- Wrote story on nurse-led innovation - “Baby Steps Program Makes a Difference for NICU Babies and Families”
- Published in Clinical Simulation in Nursing: "Baby Steps Program: Telehealth Nursing Simulation for Undergraduate Public Health Nursing Students"
- Wrote book chapter in Worldwide Successful Pediatric Nurse-Led Models of Care: "Baby Steps: Improving the Transition from Hospital to Home for Neonatal Patients and Caregivers Through a Nurse-Led Telehealth Program
- Successfully pitched story on nurse-led innovation to the Miami Herald, “Parents of premature infants get lifeline with nurses when baby leaves the hospital”
- Published in Journal of Pediatric Nursing: "A telehealth nursing intervention to improve the transition from the neonatal intensive care unit to home for infants & caregivers: Preliminary evaluation"
- Op-Ed in the Hill: We’ve put America’s children last and it shows.
- 4+ podcast appearances: That’s Healthful, Wellness Warriors, RN Mentor, and HealthCetera
- Received the 2023 Healthcare Innovation Award for the Baby Steps Program
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Baby Steps: Nurse-led Telehealth for Transition of Care named one of four "Edge Runners", Nurse-Designed Models Designated for Recognition at the 2023 AAN Health Policy Conference
- Kristen Choi, PhD, MS, RN (2021-2022)
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Mentor: Tony Roberson
Project topic overview:
- Lessons on leveraging media for mental health policy advocacy
- Policy to increase access to mental health care / telehealth expansion
- Letters to the Editor published in LA Times, “Freedom for mentally ill Californians isn’t’ the problem. The lack of care options is”
- NPR appearance to discuss conservatorship
- Southern California Public Radio: “Governor Newsom’s CARE Court Will Compel Some People To Mental Health Treatment. But Will It Help Them? Or Create More Harm?”
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Published: Looking to the VA for a roadmap on how to sustain tele-mental health care
- Brittany DiNatale RN, BSN (2021-2022)
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Mentor: Karen Drenkard
Project topic overview:
- Workplace violence against nurses
- American Nurse publication, “Workplace violence: What Can Nurses Do?”
- ANA End Nurse Abuse Campaign – nurse stakeholder on steering committee
- That’s Healthful podcast guest
- Creation of “What Can I Do” resource providing actionable steps for nurses to combat workplace violence
- Naila Russell, DNP, CRNP (2020-2022)
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Mentor: Sherrie Wallington
Project topic overview:
- The responses of nursing organizations to address/acknowledge structural racism and racial justice (following the death of George Floyd)
Outcomes:
- Opinion piece in the JNP, “America Needs Nurse Practitioners to Advocate for Social Justice”
- Published in PPNP, “Structural Racism in America: A Summative Content Analysis of National Nursing Organization Statements”
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Guest on "That's Healthful" podcast to discuss structural racism in nursing
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Presented at the Maryland Nurses Association 119th Annual Convention
- Ashley Waddell PhD, RN (2019-2021)
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Mentor: Joyce Pulcini
Project topic overview:
- Conduct a research project examining content shared by national nursing organizations on social media in the months/weeks preceding the 2018- midterm elections and/or the 2020 US Presidential election.
- Titled "Nursing Organizations' Health Policy Content on Facebook and Twitter Preceding the 2020 US Presidential Election"
Outcomes:
- Published editorial in PPNP - "Business over mission: Whose voices are being heard?"
- Published in Journal of Advanced Nursing - "Measuring nurses' health policy participation: WSPPIR instrument development and psychometric evaluation"
- Presented on the topics of health policy participation and influence at the Latino Leadership Institute run by the National Hispanic Nurses Association
- Eileen Fry-Bowers PhD, JD, RN, CPNP, FAAN (2019-2020)
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Mentor: Ric Ricciardi
Project Overview:
- Conduct a research project examining the relationships between the political beliefs, religiosity, and ethical values of nurses and their civic and media engagement using surveys and interview
Outcomes:
- Published in GW Health Policy Series and co-published in PPNP - "A Matter of Conscience: Examining the Law and Policy of Conscientious Objection in Health Care"
- Carole Myers PhD, RN, FAAN (2018-2020)
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Mentor: Diana Mason
Project Overview:
- Submit and publish national Op-eds and policy briefs
- Collaborate on planning of the Strategic Use of Media by Nursing Organizations Summit
Outcomes:
- Published in American Journal of Nursing - What Nurses Need to Know about Health Care Reform Proposals
- Published in The Hill - Major Medicaid cuts to address the increasing federal deficit are misdirected
- Published in STAT - Nurses play vital roles in health care. Why are they invisible in the media?
Fellowship sponsored webinar series
Perspectives on Policy: Writing Op-Eds, Blogs, and Commentaries
Date: March 24, 2022 - 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Presenter: Diana Mason, GW Nursing
Disseminating The Future of Nursing 2020-2030 Report: Strategies and Challenges
Date: January 26, 2022 - 1 p.m. - 2 p.m.
Presenter: Ashley Darcy-Mahoney, GW Nursing
Using Social Media to Influence Policy
Date: Wed, October 20, 2021 - 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Presenter: Melissa Batchelor, GW Nursing
Fellowship Application Information
- Overview
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The application cycle is now closed. The cycle for 2025-2026 fellows will open in spring 2025.
Applications are invited from individuals with a record of accomplishment in education, practice, research, leadership, and policy and a demonstrated interest in health policy and/or media. Each Fellow develops and implements a project focusing on a specific policy and/or media area relevant to nursing / healthcare. Suggested areas of scholarship are proposed below.
This unpaid, non-residential Fellowship is one year in length (July 1 - June 30) but may be extended for up to one additional year. Conditions permitting, fellows may be encouraged travel to Washington, D.C. at least once during the year to meet with Center faculty and staff. Other work is conducted through distance technology. Fellows work with their faculty mentor to identify deliverables and participate in Center activities.
Fellows are provided with:
- Mentorship with a Center faculty member
- Opportunities to network
- Opportunity to expand knowledge of a specified area of health policy with the support of GW faculty expertise
- Development of expertise in integrating policy and media
- Continuing education opportunities, including participation in Center sponsored webinars and conferences
- Ability to audit Advisory Board meetings
- Access to library resources
- Courtesy appointment as a Senior Research Service Professor
- Who Can Apply
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The Fellowship is open to healthcare professionals (e.g., nurses, social workers, pharmacists, dentists, psychologists, physicians, public health professionals), journalists, media professionals, policy analysts and researchers. Applicants should demonstrate an interest in and commitment to health, healthcare, and influencing health policy and media at the international, federal, state or local levels.
- Suggested Areas of Scholarship
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- Alzheimer's disease / dementia: epidemiology, disparities, prevention
- Behavioral and mental health
- Care delivery innovation: role of nursing
- Gerontology
- Health equity for racial, ethnic, sexual/gender minorities
- Inter-professional education
- Loneliness and isolation
- Maternal / child health
- Media and policy: media competencies, strategic communication, elevating the voice of nurses
- Patient and family engagement
- Primary care
- Regulatory issues
- Scope of practice
- Simulation
- Tobacco cessation
- Vaccine policy
- Application Requirements
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To be considered for this Fellowship, please complete the online application below. Be prepared to submit the following:
A current Curriculum Vitae and a Statement of Purpose of no more than two pages, outlining:
- Professional background/policy-related and/or media experience
- Interest in the Fellowship
- Scholarship topic of interest (preferably related to one of the suggested topics above)
- An proposal for a project to be completed during the Fellowship
About The Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement
The Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at The George Washington University School of Nursing is committed to…
- Increasing the visibility of nurses across health care disciplines to educate the public about their expertise, perspectives and work.
- Educating nurses, allied health professionals, and students in health policy and media.
- Using research and scholarship to inform policy discussions and solutions.
- Designing curricula, experiences and mentorships that support nurses and allied health professionals as leaders in advancing the health of populations and policies that improve delivery systems for high-quality care.
- Increasing knowledge and skills of nurses and allied health professionals in using the media to disseminate research and informed perspectives that will shape health policy.
- Engaging the public in discussions of health policy with nurses, allied health professionals and journalists.
Questions? Email [email protected].