"It's about who we are"

Cutting-edge research and collaboration drive an exceptional atmosphere at Loyola Nursing, an incubator of talent

By Ted Gregory
Photo by Erik Unger

In early 2023, Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing Professor Karen Saban earned a prestigious five-year, $3.3 million National Institutes of Health R01 grant. The funding will allow her to expand her promising research on reducing race-based stress in Black women at risk for cardiovascular disease.

R01 funding is also a marker of national recognition as an independent scientist, which Saban has earned through her distinguished record of publications and research funding. Saban says she is grateful for mentors who have guided her along the way. Now she is passing on that generosity, mentoring others as associate dean for research and scholarly innovation.

“Advancing NIH-funded research speaks to our mission to advance the science of nursing within the context of providing care for the whole person and promoting social justice and health for all,” School of Nursing Dean Lorna Finnegan says. “We want our school and our research to be known for changing the lives of the communities and patients we serve.”

Saban worked closely with three faculty members to submit NIH Research Career Development (K) Awards, which provide support and protected time for junior researchers to enhance their research training and conduct preliminary studies prior to submitting R01 grant applications:

• Lindsey Garfield, assistant professor, received an NIH K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award in 2021 to support her research training and a clinical trial on mindfulness as a stress reduction tool for Black mothers who have an infant in the neonatal intensive care unit.

• Monique Ridosh, associate professor, received an NIH K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award in 2021 to advance her research with adolescents and young adults living with spina bifida.

• In 2022, Thao Griffith, assistant professor, received an NIH K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research
  Career Development Award to determine the extent to which early life stress compromises oral feeding skill development in preterm infants.

Research with impact

These grants are perhaps the most tangible signs that an exceptional atmosphere is taking shape in the School of Nursing. The school is expanding and deepening its commitment to NIH-funded research in an environment that emphasizes collaboration, support, and Loyola University Chicago’s focus on social justice and equity. At the same time, the School of Nursing is enhancing its reputation as a talent incubator.

“The School of Nursing, under the leadership of Dean Lorna Finnegan, has been making great strides in recruiting talented researchers and growing its portfolio of societally impactful research,” says Meharvan Singh, Loyola’s vice provost for research. “There has been a 23 percent growth in School of Nursing research expenditures over the past four years, and noting the tough climate for external funding, this trajectory of success is a testament to the competitive programs of research being established by the faculty and their research teams.”

“The fact that we currently have three NIH-funded K awards at once is pretty amazing for a school our size,” Saban says. “But we worked really closely with these faculty and helped polish their applications, which have to be stellar to earn NIH support.”

A culture of mentorship

In addition to Saban’s work with these three faculty, other senior faculty research mentors are providing support. Linda Janusek, Loyola nursing professor emerita, who has extensive research expertise examining the impact of chronic stress on well-being, mentors Griffith and Garfield. Ridosh is mentored by Grayson Holmbeck, a Loyola psychology professor who has followed families with spina bifida for more than 20 years.

Janusek was on the nursing school faculty for 42 years until she retired in 2020. During that time, she was continuously funded by NIH for 18 years. Now she is serving as a grant reviewer for faculty who submit NIH and other major research grant proposals.

In June, the School of Nursing moved another step closer to acquiring additional NIH funding when Alexandra Nowak, assistant professor, submitted a proposal for K funding to continue her research on stress and preterm birth in Black women. She worked closely with Saban and Janusak on her proposal.

“Both Karen and Linda were very helpful in reviewing the proposal and making suggestions for improvement,” Nowak recalls. “Linda’s vast experience in reviewing grant proposals and her work in genomics was instrumental in the organization and clarity of my proposal.”

Beyond those projects, Assistant Professor Ginger Schroers received grants from the National League for Nursing and Illinois Nurses Foundation to advance her work developing ways to manage medication interruptions and errors. These grants fund preliminary work to support a future R01 grant.

The collaborative environment in the School of Nursing, all key players agreed, has been crucial. Nowak, who chose Loyola after postdoctoral research at Columbia University, says she felt that support during her 2022 interview. “Then, once I got here, everybody kind of rallied around me, like, ‘What do you need? What can I do for you?”

“I’m so grateful to be part of this environment,” she adds. “I think that’s why people come here, and I think that’s why people stay.”

Ridosh, the associate professor researching ways to improve the lives of those with spina bifida, personifies the Loyola ethic. Starting in 1996 as a pediatric intensive care nurse, she has worked at the School of Nursing since 2007. Back then, Ridosh saw Loyola as a premier, Catholic higher education institution where she could develop her career. She went elsewhere to earn her PhD, but Loyola faculty in and outside the School of Nursing continued mentoring her.

She says that support was crucial to her returning to become a nurse scientist at Loyola. “It’s the Jesuit values of this university that distinguish us from other institutions,” she says. “I share those values. They attracted and retained me. I’ve grown up in Loyola. I always say, ‘This is my home. This is where I want to stay.’”

Several faculty members say Saban personifies that. “Whenever I want to run an idea past Karen, she’s willing to jump on a call,” Schroers says, adding that Saban meets at least monthly with her. “She gives me very constructive, helpful feedback, and very quickly. It’s just really nice.”

Supporting faculty

That atmosphere starts with Finnegan, Saban says. Arriving at Loyola in 2019 from the University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing, Finnegan had experience obtaining her own NIH R01 funding, and in mentoring other faculty to obtain NIH funding. As dean, Finnegan is committed to assuring that faculty have adequate support on their paths to NIH funding.

One “huge change” Finnegan made early was reducing the teaching load for tenure track faculty, allowing more time for research, Saban says. “It’s an investment that you don’t see a return on right away,” she says, “but you do over time.”

In the last two years, the School of Nursing has hired five tenure-track faculty. In addition to Nowak and Schroers, who were hired in 2022, Lisa Wesolowski, Katherine Breen, and Meghan Garland began their assistant professor positions in August 2023.

When Wesolowski was interviewing for the position, she asked about the school’s approach to mentoring new faculty—an important topic for her. The answer she received, in her words, “was just stellar.”

Wesolowski accepted the job. A full month before joining the faculty, she was assigned a mentor.

“The school has a warmth that I haven’t experienced at prior institutions—warmth among the faculty, real enthusiasm for their students, their research, their mission,” says Breen, whose research focuses on using artificial intelligence to measure multimorbidity (living with two or more chronic illnesses) in patients with acute coronary syndrome. “That’s so inviting to new investigators and new faculty members. It feels like a home environment.”