UMass Boston

Research Day

About Research Day

The Donna M. and Robert J. Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences Research Day will be held on Friday, April 12, 2024 in the Campus Center Ballroom.  This year we are highlighting the four departments of our college: Exercise & Health Sciences, Gerontology, Nursing, and Public Health, with four keynote speakers focusing on our theme of Bridging Divides in Health Equity Across the Life Course. 

We are honored to feature Monica Webb Hooper, PhD, the Deputy Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities from the National Institutes of Health and Christina M. Dieli-Conwright, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in our first session of the day. Their presentations will be followed by a second session with our distinguished guests, Marie Boltz, PhD, GNP-BC, FGSA, FAAN, the Elouise Ross Eberly and Robert Eberly Endowed Chair, Professor at Penn State College of Nursing and Associate Director of the Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence and Alice Bonner, PhD, RN, FAAN, Senior Advisor for Aging at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and Chair of the Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition. We will also be showcasing student and faculty research with poster sessions and oral presentations in the late morning and afternoon.

Manning College Research Day Program of Events
Friday, April 12th, 2024, 8:00am-4:00pm
Welcome and Opening Remarks, 8:45am, Campus Center, 3rd Floor Ballroom B&C

  • Joseph B. Berger, PhD (Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs)
  • Bala Sundaram, PhD (Vice Provost for Research & Dean of Graduate Studies)
  • Bo Fernhall, PhD (MCNHS Dean) 

Keynote Presentations: 9:00-10:00am, Campus Center, 3rd Floor, Ballroom B&C

  • Monica Webb-Hooper, PhD, Deputy Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Presentation Title TBD
  • Christina M. Dieli-Conwright, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The Jacqueline Fawcett Lecture on Promoting Health across the Lifespan:  "Exercise Medicine for Clinical Populations: A hard pill to swallow"

Keynote Presentations: 10:00-10:50am, Campus Center, 3rd Floor, Ballroom B&C

  • Marie Boltz, PhD, GNP-BC, FGSA, FAAN, Elouise Ross Eberly and Robert Eberly Endowed Chair, Professor at Penn State College of Nursing, and Associate Director of the Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence, "Disparities in Hospital Dementia Care: Where are we and where do we need to go?"
  • Alice Bonner, PhD, RN, FAAN, Senior Advisor for Aging at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and Chair of the Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition, "Invisible and Forgotten: People who live and work in U.S. nursing homes"

Round Tables with Keynote Speakers, 11:00-11:30am

  • Drs. Marie Boltz and Alice Bonner, Campus Center, 3rd Floor, Rm. 3545. Opportunities for further discussion 
  • Drs. Christina Dieli-Conwright and Monica Webb-Hooper, Campus Center, 3rd Floor, Rm 3540, Opportunities for further discussion

Poster Session, 11:30am-12:30pm, Campus Center, 3rd Floor, Ballroom A

  • Rockson Anson
  • James D. Cannon
  • Hua Chen
  • Weiyang Ding
  • Wuyi Dong
  • Janelle Fassi
  • Dennis Miezah
  • Saisuree Namluck
  • Anton Pecha
  • Porntummarot Phothi
  • Chaowalit Srisoem
  • Jill Vaughn

Faculty and Student Oral Presentations, 1:30-4:00pm, Campus Center 2540 & 2545

  • Dr. Marc Cohen, Gerontology, "Assessing Medicaid Payment Rates and Costs of Caring for the Medicaid Population Residing in Nursing Homes"
  • Dr. Sabreen Darwish, Nursing, "Factors Associated with Arab Adults' Tobacco Use in the U.S."
  • Dr. Lisa Heelan-Fancher, Nursing, "The Impact of Living in an Environmental Justice Community on Birth Outcomes"
  • Jeein Jang, PhD Student, Gerontology, "Neighborhood Characteristics and Activity Engagement among Racially Diverse Community-Dwelling Older Adults"
  • Evans Kyei, PhD Candidate, Nursing, "Unravelling the Opioid Crisis in Urban Centers: Policy approaches and community strategies to address overdose deaths in Boston, MA"
  • Joao L. Maroco, PhD Student, Exercise & Health Sciences, "Endurance Training Attenuates Differences between Black and White Adults in Left Ventricular-Vascular Coupling and Wasted Pressure Effort"
  • Dr. Edward Miller, Gerontology, "I don't know who gets more out of it, the children or us: Older adults' experiences implementing the Online Intergeneratinoal Tutoring Program"
  • Dr. Katherine Richman, Nursing, Facebook Recruitment of Cigarette Users at High Risk to a Lung Health Initiative: A mixed-method analysis"
  • Shu Xu, PhD Candidate, Gerontology, "Associations between Self-Reported Visual Difficulty, Age of its Onset, and Cognitive Function Trajectories among Chinese Older Adults"
  • Keep checking our page for updates
  • All events will be in person this year. Only the Doctor of Nursing Practice Lightning Talks will be a hybrid event with some participants attending via Zoom. To download Zoom to your computer or mobile device and to make sure you have the most up-to-date version please visit HERE. Students, colleagues, and clinical and community partners are all welcome!