Meet Our Students
Columbia Nursing PhD student enter the program from Bachelor of Science, Masters Direct Entry, and Master's programs.
Bachelor of Science to PhD:
The Columbia Nursing PhD program provided the foundation necessary for me to identify and refine my research topic.
Katherine Zheng, BSN, PhD '20
Accelerated degree/Master's Direct Entry (MDE) to PhD:
The program built on my prior MDE studies to give me the skills needed to approach health issues as a nurse researcher.
Meghan Murray, MPH, MS '16, PhD '19
Master's to PhD:
After completing my master's degree in informatics, I knew I needed a PhD program with top thought-leaders in the field to mentor me toward my research goals. That's why I chose Columbia University, with their outstanding faculty of informatics innovators.
Dawn M. Feldthouse MSN, RN-BC
2021 Cohort
Christina Congdon, MS, CRNA
Christina R. Congdon, MS, CRNA, has experience in anesthesiology, critical care, and international healthcare. Her research interests include health care policy, workforce, maternal health, and improving global access to safe surgical and anesthesia care.
Faculty Mentor: Gregory L. Alexander, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI
2022 Cohort
Justinna Dixon, BSN, RN
Justinna Dixon, BSN, RN is a T32 predoctoral trainee for Comparative and Cost-Effectiveness. Research Training for Nurse Scientists (CER2). She has clinical experience in psychiatric and substance abuse units. Her research interests include mental health services, the nursing workforce, and health disparities.
Faculty Mentor: Lusine Poghosyan, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
Tyler Gaedecke, BSN, RN
Tyler Gaedecke, BSN, RN (pronouns: he/him, they/them) is a nurse with clinical experience in pediatric critical care and an academic background in gender and sexuality studies. Their research interests include LGBTQ health disparities, health policy, nursing empowerment, and the optimization of health services and systems to best serve the needs of transgender and nonbinary populations.
Faculty Mentors: Walter Bockting, PhD & Kasey Jackman, PhD, RN, PMHNP-BC
Alexandria L. Hahn, MSc, MS, RN
Alexandria L. Hahn, MSc, MS, RN (pronouns: she/her/hers) is a T32 predoctoral trainee for Reducing Health Disparities Through Informatics (RHeaDI). She earned a Masters of Science in Medical Anthropology from University of Edinburgh, UK and a Masters of Science in Nursing from Columbia University. Her research interests include maternal health, disease experience and beliefs, health disparities, and self-management support and education.
Faculty Mentor: Rebecca Schnall, PhD, MPH, RN-BC, FAAN
Sarah E. Harkins, BSN, RN
Sarah E Harkins, BSN, RN has experience in maternal fetal health and adult emergency services. Her research interests include early identification and treatment of maternal mood disorders and obstetric emergencies. Her focus is to improve birth outcomes and experiences for vulnerable populations.
Faculty Mentors: Veronica Barcelona, PhD, MSN, RN & Suzanne B. Bakken, PhD, MS, BSN, FAAN, FACMI, FIAHSI
Madison D. Horton, BSN, RN
Madison D. Horton, BSN, RN (pronouns: she/her/hers) has experience with nursing research in global settings and applying the discipline of Anthropology to further nursing theory and approaches to practice. Research interests include working with Non-English-Speaking populations and using the nursing workforce to improve healthcare infrastructure to reduce experienced healthcare disparities and chronic outcomes.
Faculty Mentor: Lusine Poghosyan PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
David López Veneros, MA, BSN, RN
David López Veneros, MA, BSN, RN (pronouns: he/him/his) has international clinical experience in health education, community, school and rural health, and research experience in behavioral cardiovascular health. His research interests include stress management, cardiovascular health, and health disparities among sexual and gender minority people.
Faculty Mentors: Billy Caceres, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN & Walter Bockting, PhD, LP
2023 Cohort
Marcela Algave, BSN, RN
Marcela Algave, BSN, RN is a T32 pre-doctoral trainee for Reducing Health Disparities Through Informatics (RHeaDI). She has clinical experience in oncology and clinical trial experience in solid tumor and hematologic malignancies. Her research interests include mental health support for adolescents and young adults with cancer and disparities in clinical trials.
Faculty Mentors: Melissa P Beauchemin, PhD, MSN, BSN, BA, CPNP-PC, CPON & Rebecca Schnall, PhD, MPH, BSN, FAAN, FACMI
Helen Dinh, BSN, RN
Helen Dinh, BSN, RN has experience in critical care and telehealth. Research interests include health disparities, technology-enabled home interventions, chronic disease self-management, transitions of care, industrial organization of health care markets.
Faculty Mentors: Meghan Reading Turchioe, PhD, MPH, RN & Ruth Masterson Creber, PhD, MSc, RN, FAAN, FAHA, FHFSA
Audrey (Xuefan) Ji, MPH, BS, RN
Audrey Xuefan Ji, MPH, BSN, RN, has experience working in long-term care and earned her Master’s degree in health policy and management at Columbia Mailman. Her research interests include nursing workforce, dementia care, and health economics.
Faculty Mentor: Lusine Poghosyan PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
Sophie Junak, BSN, RN, RN-BC
Sophie Junak, BSN, RN, RN-BC is a doctoral student at Columbia University School of Nursing. She earned her nursing degree from Louisiana State University Health Science Center where she was in the inaugural cohort of the MUSES (Mentoring Undergraduate Students for Excellence in Scholarship) undergraduate student nurse research program. She has continued the work started in her undergraduate research program throughout her nursing career and has published in the Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing and received a grant from Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Geri and ME fund to continue her research in the field of pediatric oncology survivorship. Her research interests include late effects of cancer therapy in the pediatric population, transitions of care in pediatric cancer survivors, public health and health policy.
Faculty Mentors: Ruth Masterson Creber, PhD, MSc, RN, FAAN, FAHA, FHFSA & Ulf Bronas, PhD, ATC, ATR, FSVM, FAHA
Susan Maloney, BSN, RN
Susan Maloney, BSN, RN (pronouns: she/her/hers) has an academic background in Gender and Women’s Studies and Creative Writing for which she earned a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2019. In 2021, she received her BSN, also from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Susan’s clinical nursing background is in pediatric general care. Her PhD research centers transgender and gender diverse adolescent sexual health as it relates to policy at the school-, district-, and state-levels. Her interests include gender diverse populations, pediatrics, sexuality and gender, and an intersectional approach to public policy.
Faculty Mentors: Kasey Jackman, PhD, MPhil, MS, BS, BA, PMHNP-BC & Jean-Marie Bruzzese, PhD
Victoria Winogora MSN, NP, BS, RN, BA
Victoria Winogora MSN, NP, BS, RN, BA (she/her/hers) is a T32 predoctoral trainee for Systems Science and Comparative and Cost-Effectiveness Research Training for Nurse Scientists (S2CER2). Her background includes a BA in history and philosophy of science from The University of Chicago. Prior to starting the program, she worked as a nurse practitioner in the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her research interests include end-of-life care, palliative care, health disparities in vulnerable populations, and health equity.
Faculty Mentor: Patricia Stone, PhD, RN, FAAN, CIC
2024 Cohort
Sarah S. Giordano BSN, RN, AHN-BC
Sarah S. Giordano BSN, RN, AHN-BC (pronouns: she/her/hers) is a Columbia University School of Nursing PhD student. Her research interests are universal access to healthcare, public health, primary care, nurse empowerment, nurse leadership, the healing properties of consciousness and the connection within and between us and our environment.
Faculty Mentors: Lusine Poghosyan, PhD, MPH, RN & Monica O'Reilly-Jacob PhD, APRN, FNP-BC, FAAN
Sophia Kalomeris, BSN
Sophia Kalomeris, BSN is a Phd Nursing Student passionate about advocating for sexual minority women and enhancing their sexual health outcomes. Her research focuses on identifying and mitigating barriers to care that these women often face, particularly concerning their STD/STI status. She graduated with her BSN from University of San Francisco and has worked in Trauma/Orthopedics and Cardiology as a bedside nurse. She also has been very involved in community health initiatives and working with the non-profit Walking Palms Global Health, where she gained a passion for women’s/reproductive health.
Faculty Mentors: Corina Lelutiu-Weinberger, PhD, MPhil, BA & Maureen George, PhD, AE-C, RN, FAAN
Irvin Ong, EdD, DNP, RN, LPT, AGPCNP-BC, FPSQua, FAAN
Irvin Ong, DNP, RN, LPT, AGPCNP-BC, FPSQua, FAAN (pronouns: he/him/his) has over 15 years of professional experience in education, healthcare, and research. He is a champion of continuing professional development and an advocate of gerontologic health using innovative technology. Dr. Ong is the president of Phi Gamma, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing's ONLY virtual chapter. His research interests are older adult health, advanced health technologies, omics research, lifelong learning, and health equity.
Faculty Mentor: Rebecca Schnall, PhD, MPH, BSN, FAAN, FACMI
Diego Redondo-Sáenz, MSN, BSN
Diego Redondo-Sáenz, MSN, BSN (pronouns: he/him/his) has clinical experience in occupational health, emergency nursing, and perioperative care, and research experience in qualitative approaches (particularly life history and qualitative descriptive designs), as well as quantitative approaches, including correlational studies and factor analysis. Prior to joining the PhD program he was a faculty member at the University of Costa Rica, with a joint appointment at the School of Nursing and the School of Medicine. His research interests include cognition, symptom science, "omics" approaches, and perioperative care.
Faculty Mentors: Ulf G Bronas, PhD, ATC, ATR, FSVM, FAHA & Ruth Masterson Creber, PhD, MSc, RN, FAAN, FAHA, FHFSA
Kyle Edward Reyes, MSN, BSN, RN, CCRN, CWCN
Kyle Edward Reyes, MSN, BSN, RN, CCRN, CWCN (pronouns: he/him/his) is a critical care RN with diverse clinical bedside experiences across varied inpatient departmental specialties since 2016. He started his career on a general surgery/orthopedic/bariatric unit in New Jersey before eventually transferring to NewYork-Presbyterian - Columbia to a cardiothoracic surgery stepdown unit. During that time, he obtained a post-baccaularate CWOCN certificate from Cleveland Clinic, and spent his extra time actively engaging within their wound care committee, specifically focusing on audits/documentation, education, and quality improvement of wound care practices. His most recent experiences were in the Medical ICU within the Department of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine and is trained in VV-ECMO. He recently graduated with an MSN degree with a AG-ACNP specialization, and hopes to become an Ph.D.-prepared nurse practitioner, researcher, and educator. His underlying clinical experiences and collaboration with nurse researchers were elemental in informing his interests toward how research has influences, guides, and improves RN/APN standards of practice and shapes evidenced-based clinical practice appoaches as it relates to patientcare safety, efficacy, and quality.
Research interests include: cardiac palliative care models in heart failure populations; palliative care experience(s)/early intervention/guideline-directed therapy/patient-centered philosophy on recovery; cardiology/cardiovascular health/structural heart; heart failure (HF)/HF phenotyping, HF symptom experiences, HF prognostication; genomics/proteonomics; data-analysis and forecasting
Faculty Mentor: Ruth Masterson Creber, PhD, MSc, RN, FAAN, FAHA, FHFSA
Jiaojiao Wright, MSN, RN
Jiaojiao Wright, MSN, RN graduated from Traditional Chinese Medicine University in China, holds a master’s degree in Chinese-English translation and interpretation from Xian Jiaotong University and an MSN from Johns Hopkins. She was a frontline nurse during covid and worked as an ER nurse at New York Presbyterian lower Manhattan hospital. She is the recipient for best poster award in the 2024 NYP Emergency Medicine Symposium. Her research interests are AI-based tools to assist the communication between providers and non-English speaking patients
Faculty Mentors: Maxim Topaz, PhD, MA, RN, FAAN & Meghan Reading Turchioe, PhD, MPH, RN
NYP Part-time Program
Danica Dorlette MPH, BSN, RN, OCN
Danica Dorlette MPH, BSN, RN, OCN is an oncology nurse specialized in hematologic malignancies. She has public health experience ranging from environmental justice efforts to involvement in qualitative research on disaster-exposed populations. Her research interests are in cancer health disparities, health literacy, public health, and health policy.
Faculty Mentor: Arlene Smaldone, PhD, MA, BS, PNP-PC, CDCES
Lenka Hellerova, MS, BSN, AE-C
Lenka Hellerova, MS, BSN, AE-C is a pediatric emergency room nurse and a former Academic-Practice Research fellow (2018-2020) through CUSON and NYP. Her research interests include adolescent mental and behavioral health, and disparities in healthcare access among minoritized urban populations.
Faculty Mentors: Jean-Marie Bruzzese, PhD & Arlene Smaldone, PhD, CPNP-PC, FAAN
Brianna Lin, BSN, RN
Brianna Lin, BSN, RN is a critical care nurse at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Her research program is focused on the interplay of interprofessional collaboration, nursing work environment factors, and clinician outcomes including wellbeing and workforce retention. Over the past 4 years, she has been active on several research initiatives through the New York Presbyterian Research Council, including a study of the physical and psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on nursing workforce. She is an active member of the Eastern Nursing Research Society
Faculty Mentors: Allison Norful PhD, RN, ANP-BC, FAAN & Jean Marie Bruzzese, PhD
Simon Paul P. Navarro, MA, BSN, RN, CCRN, TCRN
Simon Paul P. Navarro, MA, BSN, RN, CCRN, TCRN (pronouns: he/ him/ his) has international clinical experience in critical care, perianesthesia, and medical-surgical nursing. He’s a nursing research fellow in the Academic-Practice Research Fellowship Program at New-York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University School of Nursing (CUSON). His research interests center on workforce dynamics, issues, and outcomes within nursing practice environments.
Faculty Mentors: Allison Norful PhD, RN, ANP-BC, FAAN & Gregory L. Alexander, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI
Eunice Eunyoung Yang, MSN, AGACNP-BC, CNN, CDCES
Eunice Eunyoung Yang, MSN, AGACNP-BC, CNN, CDCES, is an adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner specializing in diabetes education and end-stage renal disease management. Eunice's research interests are health promotion for people with diabetes and diabetes-related complications.
Faculty Mentor: Arlene Smaldone, PhD, MA, BS, PNP-PC, CDCES
