Campbell and Nilsen Win ONS Foundation Awards

Congratulations to Grace Campbell (assistant professor) and Marci Nilsen (post-doctoral fellow) for receiving Research Career Development Awards from the Oncology Nursing Society Foundation. These awards are intended to support oncology research training and mentorship of recent PhD graduates to best position them for long and productive research careers. 

Campbell, who earned her PhD here at Pitt Nursing in 2013, was awarded the grant for her proposal titled “Quantifying the Functional Impact of Neurotoxic Chemotherapy: Automated Gait Assessment.” She plans to use a Microsoft Kinect camera to explore gait and mobility changes during and after neurotoxic chemotherapy. For this work, Campbell will be mentored by Dr. Marjorie A. Skubic of the University of Missouri Schools of Engineering and Computer Science.

Nilsen, a 2013 PhD graduate of Pitt’s School of Nursing, will be mentored by Heidi Donovan, professor at Pitt Nursing, and Jonas T. Johnson, the Dr. Eugene N. Myers Professor and Chairman of Pitt’s Department of Otolaryngology. Her proposal is titled “Promoting Communication and Symptom Management of Persons with Head and Neck Cancer and Caregivers.” The goals of this research program are to identify long-term survivorship needs and design a behavioral intervention to promote communication and symptom management on the part of such cancer patients and their family caregivers.