Who We Are

Columbia University School of Nursing

Jingjing Shang, PhD, RN, OCN, FAAN

Jingjing Shang is a professor of nursing at the Columbia University School of Nursing. Her research focuses on infection prevention and control in various health care settings (including home health care), cancer patient outcomes, and nursing workforce. As the principal investigator, she oversees all aspects of this study, in collaboration with Margaret McDonald at VNSNY and Jinjiao Wang at URMC, and leads the Columbia Nursing team.

Maureen George, PhD, RN, AE-C, FAAN

Maureen George is a professor of nursing at the Columbia University School of Nursing. She has extensive experience in qualitative research. For this study, she will guide the data collection and the dyadic interview analysis of home health patients or informal caregivers and home health providers.

Ashley Chastain, DrPH, MPH

Ashley Chastain is a senior project director at Columbia University School of Nursing. She has expertise in mixed methods research and analyzing patient/caregiver-provider communication. As a co-investigator, she will be involved with all aims of the study, but primarily Aims 2 and 3.

Haomiao Jia, PhD, MS

Haomiao Jia is a professor of biostatistics at the Columbia University School of Nursing. He specializes in temporal-spatial analyses and hierarchical models, and worked with Shang on a pilot study of infection-related disparities in home health care using American Community Survey data. As the study’s biostatistician, Jia will guide the analysis of Aim 1.

Jianfang Liu, PhD, MPA, MA

Jianfang Liu is an assistant professor of quantitative research at the Columbia University School of Nursing. She has solid knowledge of quantitative methodology and strong analytic skills. As this study’s methodologist, Liu will guide the development of the model to identify patients with high risk of infection and survey data analysis.

Uduwanage Gayani Perera, PhD, MSc

Gayani Perera is a senior data manager at the Columbia University School of Nursing. She has expertise in analyzing survey, CMS data and other national datasets, and serves as the data manager on the study.

Khadra Dualeh, MPH

Khadra Dualeh is a research coordinator with the Center for Health Policy at CUSON. As the project coordinator on this study, she assists with administrative aspects, as well as survey programming and dissemination of findings.

Bridget Morse-Karzen, MPH

Bridget Morse-Karzen is a research manager with the Center for Health Policy at CUSON. She assists with administrative aspects of the study.

Nayely Cazares

Nayley Cazares is an MPH student in the Population & Family Health Department at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She serves as a research assistant on this study.

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VNS Health

Margaret McDonald, MSW

Margaret McDonald is the associate director of the VNS Health Center for Home Care Policy & Research. She has 20 years of experience in community-based settings, overseeing interventions, primary data collection, and secondary data analysis activities. As a site PI, McDonald will be involved in all aspects of the study, and will lead the collection of survey and qualitative data and pilot intervention at the VNS Health site.

David Russell, PhD, MS

David Russell is a research scientist at VNS Health and assistant professor of sociology at Appalachian State University. He has experience conducting multi-method studies, including both survey design/implementation and qualitative interviewing/analysis. As a co-investigator at the VNSHealth site, he will guide the development of the survey.

Nicole Onorato, MPH

Nicole Onorato is a research project manager at the Center for Home Care Policy & Research at VNS Health. She helps to manage and conduct participant recruitment and data collection for the study.

Sasha Vergez, MPH

Sasha Vergez is a research analyst at the Center for Home Care Policy & Research at VNS Health, and conducts participant recruitment and data collection for the study.

Yolanda Barrón-Vayá, MS

Yolanda Barrón-Vayá is a senior biostatistician at the Center for Home Care Policy & Research at VNS Health, and helps with methodology and conducting data analyses for the study.

Sridevi Sridharan, MS

Sridevi Sridharan is a analytics engineer at the Center for Home Care Policy & Research at VNS Health, and assists with data analysis for the study.

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University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC)

Jinjiao Wang, PhD, MPhil, RN

Jinjiao Wang is an assistant professor at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. She has extensive experience researching elderly patients in the home care setting using mixed methods. As a site PI, Wang will be involved in all aspects of the study, and will lead the collection of survey and qualitative data at the URMC site.

Thomas Caprio, MD, MPH, MS

Thomas Caprio is professor of Medicine/Geriatrics, Psychiatry, Dentistry, Clinical Nursing, and Public Health Sciences at URMC and medical director of University of Rochester Medicine Home Care. He is a seasoned geriatrician with extensive experience in health services research, particularly focusing on elderly patients living in the community. As a co-investigator, he will work with Wang to ensure successful participant recruitment and data collection at the URMC site.

Judith Brasch, RN, MS

Judith Brasch is a senior health project coordinator at the Harriet J. Kitzman Center for Research Support at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. She helps to manage and conduct participant recruitment and data collection for the study.

Evette Ramos, BS

Evette Ramos is a research coordinator at the Harriet J. Kitzman Center for Research Support at the University of Rochester School of Nursing, and conducts participant recruitment and data collection for the study.

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Expert Consultants

Sarah Szanton, PhD, RN, FAAN

Sarah Szanton is the dean and the Patricia M. Davidson Professor for Health Equity and Social Justice at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She has substantial expertise in health disparities in older adults, particularly those living in the community. 

Mary McGoldrick, MS, RN, CRNI, FAAN

Mary McGoldrick is the founder of and a home care and hospice consultant for Home Health Systems, Inc. She has been in the field of quality and infection prevention for over 35 years. McGoldrick is a thought leader in the field of infection prevention and control in home health care.