Margaret Rosenzweig | School of Nursing | University of Pittsburgh

PhD, CRNP-C, AOCNP, FAAN

Distinguished Service Professor of Nursing

Nancy Glunt Hoffman Chair in Oncology Nursing

Professor of Medicine

Oncology Nursing Society Research Scholar in Residence

Vice Chair for Research & Scholarship

Acute & Tertiary Care

Clinical Emphasis

Dr. Rosenzweig maintains an active clinical practice as a nurse practitioner for women with breast cancer at the Hillman Cancer Center/Magee-Womens Hospital. Her clinical work directly informs her research and community outreach.

She leads the Support, Education, and Advocacy Program for Women with Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC/SEA Program), which has established a database of 2,000 women with metastatic breast cancer. This database serves as a valuable resource for analyzing clinical care trends and identifying unmet supportive care needs. These insights contributed to the development of a nurse-led primary palliative care intervention, integrated into weekly collaborative meetings at Magee-Womens Hospital to ensure comprehensive, patient-centered care.

Scholarly Emphasis

Dr. Margaret Rosenzweig’s research focuses on ensuring that all patients receive timely and equitable cancer diagnoses, treatment, and support. Her work centers on addressing racial and economic disparities in breast cancer survival, with a particular emphasis on Black women with breast cancer, women with metastatic breast cancer, and community engagement.

With over 20 years of funding from federal, philanthropic, and pharmaceutical sources, Dr. Rosenzweig has systematically investigated the impact of race, income, and neighborhood on cancer care outcomes. Her NIH-funded study, Symptom Experience, Management, and Outcomes According to Race and Social Determinants of Health during Breast Cancer Chemotherapy (5 R01MD012245), examined racial differences in symptom burden, clinical communication, and chemotherapy dose completion. Expanding on this work, her research—supported by the Genentech Health Equity Grants (2020–2025)—incorporates biologic markers of lifetime stress, discrimination, and allostatic load.

Dr. Rosenzweig also leads the DOULA-AC/Ubuntu Project, funded through the Pitt Innovation Challenge and the Pittsburgh Foundation, which trains community health workers to provide emotional support, legacy-building, practical assistance, and family guidance for Black patients with advanced cancer.

Her research team is highly productive, with over 150 peer-reviewed publications and numerous national and international presentations. Dr. Rosenzweig has received multiple honors, including induction as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (2015), the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame (2022), the President’s Award from the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research (2020), and the 2025 Excellence in Social Justice & Health Equity Award from the Eastern Nursing Research Society.

Teaching

Dr. Rosenzweig’s teaching focuses on ethics, equity, and oncology care, spanning all levels of nursing education. She has developed educational initiatives for students and clinicians across the health sciences, emphasizing strategies to enhance patient-provider communication, particularly in advanced illness and palliative care.

Through the National Cancer Institute’s R25 mechanism, she developed a web-based oncology nurse practitioner education curriculum. Additionally, in collaboration with the Oncology Nursing Society, she has advanced symptom science education for doctorally prepared oncology nurses.

Service

Dr. Rosenzweig is deeply engaged in professional service, patient advocacy, and community outreach. As the Oncology Nursing Society’s Scholar in Residence, she guides the development of oncology nursing scholarship, sets research priorities, and fosters collaboration within the Oncology Nursing Foundation.

She co-leads the Breast Cancer Research Advocacy Network (BC-RAN), empowering patients to actively participate in breast cancer research design, and serves as co-leader of the Metastatic Cancer Support Group at Cancer Bridges, an advocacy organization supporting patients and their families.

Within the community, Dr. Rosenzweig co-founded and leads the Allegheny County Breast Collaborative, an initiative that connects underserved women with breast cancer resources to address racial disparities in survival outcomes. She also works with Pittsburgh Promise, promoting nursing as a career path for high school students, and serves on the Western Pennsylvania American Cancer Society Board of Directors.