By Jennifer Lollar
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing Dean and Fay B. Ireland Endowed Chair Maria R. Shirey, PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, ANEF, FACHE, FNAP, FAAN, has named Professor, Assistant Dean for Research and Scholarship and Marie O’Koren Endowed Chair in Nursing Ellen M. Lavoie Smith, PhD, MSN, RN, AOCN®, FAAN, Interim Associate Dean for the Office of Research and Scholarship.
Smith replaces Marie Bakitas, DNSc, CRNP, NP-C, AOCN, ACHPN, FAAN, FPCN, who is returning to the faculty. Bakitas has been Associate Dean since August 2020. A national search is planned to fill the Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship position.
Smith, who co-leads UAB’s National Cancer Institute-funded Cancer Prevention and Control T32 training program, has extensive oncology clinical expertise, is an experienced cancer control researcher who has secured funding from diverse sources, including the National Institutes of Health, foundations and industry, and has sustained ties to the National Cancer Institute Cancer Cooperative Research Group Network as a leader and lead investigator of multi-site NCI-funded trials.
Her program of research is well recognized as pioneering and pivotal in identifying interventions for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. She currently leads a large multisite NCI R01-funded Phase II-III trial to test duloxetine to prevent chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. Smith has published more than 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has a strong track record for supporting doctoral trainees and early career researchers, among others. Smith has received numerous national awards for her work, including the 2018 Fellows of the National Institute of Nursing Research Welch/Woerner Path Paver Award. Prior to coming to UAB in 2021, Smith was an oncology nurse practitioner at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and a tenured faculty member at the University of Michigan.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Bakitas for her efforts in leading the ORS,” Shirey said. “The research mission is a crucial element of the success of the UAB School of Nursing’s overall tripartite mission of Teaching, Research and Service.”
Shirey also expressed appreciation to the many dedicated faculty colleagues who are stepping into new and different leadership roles to ensure a smooth transition and ongoing success of our ORS.
In addition, Associate Professor, Director of the PhD Program and Director of the Dual DNP-PhD Pathway Edwin Aroke, PhD, CRNA, FADLN, FAANA, FAAN, will become Interim Assistant Dean for Research and Scholarship. Aroke, who is part of the leadership team of the UAB Center for Addiction and Pain Prevention and Intervention, is an internationally recognized CRNA scientist with expertise in pain research and health disparities. His NIH-funded interdisciplinary research program focuses on social determinants of pain and the role of epigenomic changes in chronic pain and pain disparities. As a pain scientist, he serves on the Advisory Board of the NIH HEAL PURPOSE Network, the Coordinating Center for National Pain Scientists and is co-founder and the immediate past President of the Association of Cameroonian Nurse Anesthetists in America, which is improving anesthesia outcomes in Cameroon and beyond.
Aroke has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed papers focusing on health disparities, anesthesia outcomes and innovative strategies to improve health equity. He serves as a peer reviewer for more than 10 professional journals and sits on the editorial boards of several professional journals, including the Journal of Pain, AANA Journal, and Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing. Aroke has received numerous awards for his work, including the Researcher of the Year from the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) Foundation and Mitchell Max Award for Research Excellence from the NIH.
To provide leadership for the PhD Program and Dual DNP-PhD Pathway during this transition, Professor and Assistant Director of the PhD Program Pariya Fazeli Wheeler, PhD, has been named Interim Director of the PhD Program and Associate Professor Crystal Chapman Lambert, PhD, CRNP, NP‐C, FNP‐BC, AAHIVS, ACRN, FAAN, has been named Interim Assistant Director of the PhD Program and the Dual DNP-PhD Pathway.
Wheeler is an experimental psychologist with academic training in lifespan development, cognitive aging and gerontology. Her research interests include cognitive aging among older adults with HIV, with a focus on predictors of successful cognitive aging as well as rehabilitation strategies to promote successful cognitive aging in this population. In spring 2022, Wheeler received a two-year, $100,000 grant to study the neuropsychological impact of COVID-19 in older adults. It was one of UAB’s first grants examining the cognitive effects of COVID-19. In August 2022, she also was awarded a National Institute on Aging R21 grant for nearly half a million dollars over two years, to examine the efficacy and mechanisms of a resilience intervention among older people living with HIV. Additionally, in spring 2024, Wheeler and a co-investigator were awarded a five-year, $3.3 million R01 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the effect of immune activation on neurocognitive impairment and the role of psychosocial factors among women living with HIV.
Chapman Lambert’s research activities focus on improving health outcomes for minority populations, more specifically women living with HIV. For her dissertation, she recruited and administered a survey to 300 women living with HIV to assess their attitudes, beliefs and knowledge regarding HPV and cervical cancer screening. Continuing her passion to improve health outcomes for women living with HIV, Chapman Lambert is evaluating multilevel factors that impact medication and appointment adherence. In 2023, she was named one of 16 Fellows of the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators. These are early-to mid-career nursing scholars and innovators identified as having a high potential to accelerate leadership in nursing-science research, practice, education, policy and entrepreneurship. As part of her Fellowship, she received a $450,000 grant for her project, “Enhance social support for Black women with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) using technology.”
“I want to thank all of our ORS faculty and staff for everything they do to keep our school strong and for elevating the reputation of our world-class school of nursing at home, across the state, nation and all over the world,” Shirey said. “As we all are ‘Boldy Blazing Forward’ with our new strategic plan to elevate our School to its next level of excellence, each element of the mission must be successful for the full school to be successful. I have no doubt these interim leaders, with help from the rest of the team in ORS and the School, will continue to make our research mission successful.”
