Funded Projects

Our faculty members are actively engaged in the advancement of nursing science and health care research. The following are currently funded projects organized by PI's / faculty members' last name.

Modifying Adiposity Through Behavioral Strategies to Improve COVID-19 Rehabilitation

PI: Kathleen Griffith and Alice Ryan (UMB)
Funder:  Department of Veterans Affairs
Award Start: 4/1/24
Award End: 3/31/29
Overview: This randomized controlled trial of exercise and weight loss is designed to evaluate changes in physical function, body composition, and changes in the global molecular profile of adipose tissue in obese Veterans with post-Covid conditions, also known as long Covid.


Implementation of Competency-based Education to Scaffold Evidence-based Practice Competencies in a Doctor of Nursing Practice Program

PIs: Karen Kesten and Karen Whitt
Funder:  Sigma Theta Tau Phi Epsilon Chapter
Award Start: 5/30/23
Award End: 5/30/26
Overview: The importance of evidence-based practice (EBP) in promoting health care quality and safe patient care has been emphasized in nursing education and practice. There is a need to improve EBP competency among practicing nurses. This longitudinal study examines how implementing a competency-based education (CBE) approach to introduce and scaffold learning opportunities to develop EBP competency throughout a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program of study demonstrates students’ progress towards achieving these competencies.


Reducing disparities in chronic pain with a tailored psychosocial education intervention for an underrepresented population 

PI: Hee Jun Kim 
Funder: National Institute of Nursing Research
Award Start: 5/14/24
Award End: 4/30/26
Overview: This study aims to fill critical knowledge gaps in pain disparity research by providing evidence of feasibility and acceptability of a culturally-tailored psychosocial pain education intervention for an underrepresented population, using the Korean American community as an exemplar. This is a multidisciplinary, community-based participatory research project. Achieving the study’s goals will demonstrate for the first time that a nurse-led, community-based psychosocial education intervention to reduce chronic pain for the underrepresented Korean American population may be feasible and acceptable, forming the basis for a larger efficacy trial to test the tailored intervention.


Expanding and Promoting Alternative Care and Knowledge in Decision-making (ExPAND) Trial

PI: Dale Lupu
Funder: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)
Award Start: 7/1/23
Award End: 9/30/29
Overview:   The primary objective of this study is to compare two health system-based approaches for offering kidney failure treatment options to older patients with kidney failure, to ensure they are actively involved in a shared decision making (SDM) process covering a full range of choices and have meaningful access to that full range of choices, including standard in-center or home dialysis (SIHD) and alternative treatment plans (ATPs): active medical management without dialysis (AAMWD), time-limited trial of dialysis (TLT), palliative dialysis, and deciding not to decide (DND).

ExPAND Project Details


Assessing Nurse Practitioner Competency across Clinical and Virtual Simulation Settings

PI: Christine Pintz
Funder: National Council of State Boards of Nursing
Award Start: 08/01/25
Award End: 06/30/26


Advancing Social Determinants of Health Research through A CBPR Lens: A Short Course

PI: Sherrie Wallington
Funder: NIH/NINR
Award Start: 7/18/24
Award End: 5/18/27


Breast Density and Me

PI: Sherrie Wallington
Funder: Prevent Cancer Foundation
Award Start: 1/15/24
Award End: 1/14/26
Overview: This study will discern benefits of informing minority women, especially in underserved DC wards, about their breast density so that follow-up mammograms will increased and ultimately lead to reduce breast cancer mortality. 


Severe Burn Nursing Care in Large Scale Combat Operations

PI: Catherine Cox Wilson
Funder: TriService Nursing Research Program (TSNRP)
Award Start: 12/1/23
Award End: 11/30/25
Overview: The purpose of this study is to gather first-person narratives from military nurses who cared for severe burn patients in theater/boots on ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, anytime from years 2001-2021. The aims of this study are to: 1) describe the experience of military nurses who cared for severe burn patients in theater and 2) analyze accounts from military nurses who cared for severe burn patients in theater in order to provide recommendations for training and future direction concerning severe burn nursing care in large scale combat operations.


Tobacco use trajectories and related mechanisms among US adults and youth representing minority and intersecting minority identities

PI: Dr. Yan Wang and Tony Yang
Funder: NIH
Award Start: 04/01/25
Award End: 03/31/27


Strengthening Hepatitis B Birth Dose Immunization in DC Area Birthing Hospitals and Lessons for RSV Prevention

PI: Y. Tony Yang
Funder: Merck
Award Start: 7/1/24
Award End: 12/31/25
Overview: This project aims to increase the hepatitis B birth dose immunization rate in Washington, DC, particularly focusing on hospitals that serve a diverse population, including a high proportion of Black infants.


Cannabis Equity Policies and the Legal Recreational Marijuana Industry

PI: Y. Tony Yang and Carla Berg (GWU-SPH)
Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Award Start: 8/30/23
Award End: 7/31/25
Overview: The overall goal of this grant is to expand on this newly-developed cannabis retail-related policy database by providing additional detailed data on equity-related policies and their implementation and examine their impacts.

Effects of State Preemption of Local Tobacco Control Legislation on Disparities in Tobacco Use, Exposure and Retail

PI: Y. Tony Yang and Carla Berg (GWU-SPH)
Funder: National Cancer Institute
Award Start: 4/15/23
Award End: 3/31/27
Overview: Our objective is to advance our understanding of whether—and to what extent—enactment or repeal of state preemption on local tobacco control is associated with disparities in tobacco use, SHSe, and retail (sales, retailer density).


Recreational Marijuana Marketing and Young Adult Consumer Behavior

PI: Y. Tony Yang, Carla Berg (GWU-SPH) and Patricia A. Cavazos-Rehg (Washington University)
Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Award Start: 9/14/23
Award End: 2/28/27