Grant Awards & Funded Projects
National Institutes of Health funding from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Grant [UH3AT012728] 2025-2026. Dr. Lorraine Evangelista serves as Co-Investigator for this project entitled “Personalized Auricular Point Acupressure for Chronic Pain Self-Management in Rural Populations” where a collaborative team led by Dr. Jennifer Kawi of Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston will evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a four-week auricular point acupressure self-management program.
For additional information about the project, contact Dr. Lorraine Evangelista at Lorraine_Evangelista@baylor.edu
THECB Nursing, Allied Health, and Other Health Related Education Grant Program (NAHP) 2025-2027 Dr. Brandy Brown (Project director) and Dr. Alona Angosta (Co-director) of Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing (LHSON) received $149,445.00 from THECB NAHP to support their project titled, “Online Education with Academic-Practice Initiative for Educating and Retaining Nurses in Texas.” This 2-year project aims to enhance clinical preceptorship and facilitate professional development by implementing online learning platforms to support nurses and clinical preceptors and provide interactive online educational sessions.
For additional information about the project, contact Dr. Brandy Brown at Brandy_Brown@baylor.edu or Dr. Alona Angosta at Alona_Angosta@baylor.edu
LHSON Dean's Grant 2025 – Dr. Ashley Calverley (Project lead) & Dionne Magner (Co-lead). Dr. Calverley received the LHSON Dean’s Grant award in the amount of $4,985.78 for their project titled, “Introduction of Stop the Bleed Training in Undergraduate Population Health Nursing: A Quality Improvement Project.” This 1-yr project aims to incorporate the STB training into the undergraduate course, PHN 4345 and assess senior nursing students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
For additional information, contact Dr. Ashley Calverley at Ashley_Calverley@baylor.edu
LHSON Dean's Grant 2025 – Dr. Carol Rukobo (Principal investigator)
Dr. Rukobo received the LHSON Dean’s Grant award in the amount of $2,500.00 to support a study titled, “Student Nurse Perception of Nurse Preceptor Clinical Teaching Behavior Effectiveness.” The purpose of this study is to evaluate the preceptor's clinical teaching behaviors as perceived by undergraduate nursing students before graduation.
For additional information, contact Dr. Rukobo at Carol_Rukobo@baylor.edu
The Geneva Foundation 2024-2026 – Dr. Kelly Rossler (Co-investigator) & Dr. Cory Smith (Principal investigator) received a subaward from The Geneva Foundation in the amount of $311,711.00 for their research titled, “Project BARRIER: Ballistic Carrier Systems – Analysis.” The purpose of this research is to evaluate how armor design and fit affect service members' physical, operational, and functional performance and psychological well-being. Dr. Smith is an Assistant Professor at Baylor University Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences.
For additional information, contact Dr. Kelly Rossler at Kelly_Rossler@baylor.edu
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) 2024-2026 – Dr. Karen Foli (Primary investigator) received a 2-year subaward from SAMHSA (pass through Purdue University) in the amount of $105,085.00 for her research titled, “Advanced Practice NuRses’ Opioid Use Disorder Education Through a Massive Open Online Course (APROUD-MOOC).”
For additional information about this study, contact Dr. Karen Foli at Karen_Foli@baylor.edu
National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) 2024-2025 – Dr. Karen Foli (Principal investigator) received a grant from NCSBN in the amount of $174,500.00 for her research titled, “Middle-Level Nurse Managers (MLNMs): Substance Use and Intention to Leave.” This study aims to address the gaps and contribute to the field of nursing research, specifically focusing on the challenges and experiences of MLNMs and to explore a comprehensive set of predictors, facilitating more in-depth understanding of both their collective and individual impact on nurse managers' turnover intention and substance use issues.
For additional information, contact Dr. Karen Foli at Karen_Foli@baylor.edu
Discovery Grant Foundation 2024-2025 – Dr. Marie Lindley (Project director) & Dr. Erin Killingsworth (Co-director) received funding from the Discovery Foundation in the amount of $91,172.00 to support a project titled: “Addressing the Gap in Nursing Education Related the Care of Patients with High Body Weight.” This funding will help create a culture in healthcare and contribute to long-term improvements in women’s health.
For additional information, contact Dr. Marie Lindley at Marie_Lindley@baylor.edu
LHSON Dean's Grant 2024 – Dr. Tiffany Flood (Project director), Dr. Michelle Jamison and Dr. Jennifer Jones (Co-directors). Dr. Flood, Dr. Jamison, and Dr. Jones received a $5,000.00 intramural grant for their project titled, “The Student Nurse Camp: A Model to Increase Access & Success in the Pathway to Nursing with Inclusive Excellence.” This funding aims to address the nursing shortage by increasing diversity through immersive initiatives that target marginalized youth to promote nursing as a career and dispel barriers, in partnership with the non-profit local organization, CompassRN.
For additional information, contact Dr. Tiffany Flood at Tiffany_Flood@baylor.edu
LHSON Dean’s Grant 2024 – Dr. Katy Vogelaar (Project director), Dr. Laura Butler and Dr. Shelli Ellis (Co-directors)
Dr. Vogelaar, Dr. Butler, and Dr. Ellis received the LHSON Dean’s Grant award in the amount of $5,000.00 for their project titled: “Role socialization through simulation-based experiences to increase pre-nursing student retention within the major: A quality improvement study.” This 1-yr project aims to increase pre-nursing student retention to the major by adding simulation to the freshman level introductory course. With increased retention within the major, these funds will not only impact the quality of the pre-nursing student experience but also the projected nursing shortage crisis.
For additional information, contact Dr. Katy Vogelaar at Katy_Vogelaar@baylor.edu
THECB Nursing & Allied Health-Nursing Innovation Grant Program (NIGP) 2023-2025 – Dr. Alona Angosta (Project director) & Dr. Brandy Brown (Co-director)
Dr. Angosta and Dr. Brown of Baylor University LHSON were awarded $200,000.00 grant from THECB NIGP to support a project titled, “Innovation to Impact: Online Education with Academic-Practice Initiative for Increasing and Retaining Nurses in Texas.” The aim of the project is to develop, implement, and evaluate an innovative and collaborative initiative that will positively influence nursing practice shortages through education, retention, and recruitment strategies and inform future initiatives through research. The project will be implemented through the Distance Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (DABSN) program. The DABSN program is a 12-month accelerated online BSN program track that was designed to admit students from across Texas with the goal of increasing the nursing workforce in rural Texas. Rural areas are extremely impacted by the nursing shortage with limited resources to meet patient care needs. Funds will be used to develop online learning platforms to support nurses and nursing preceptors, provide online interactive educational sessions for nurses, preceptors, and students for confidence and community building; and host in-person educational and recruitment events for nursing students and nurses in the rural Texas healthcare settings, where limited access to professional development and decreased access to nursing education occur.
For additional information, contact Dr. Alona Angosta at Alona_Angosta@baylor.edu or Dr. Brandy Brown at Brandy_Brown@baylor.edu
Discovery Grant Foundation 2023-2024 – Dr. Marie Lindley (Project director), Shopha Tserotas, Dr. Erin Killingsworth, and Dr. Alona Angosta (Co-directors)
Dr. Lindley, Ms. Tserotas (PhDc), Dr. Killingsworth, and Dr. Angosta received a $50,000.00 grant from the Discovery Foundation. Project title: Enhancing Nursing Students Learning to Address Women’s Health in Underserved Populations” to help solve the nursing shortage crisis, prepare more nurses, and increase the quality of health care for individuals throughout North Texas, across the state, and around the world.
For additional information, contact Dr. Marie Lindley at Marie_Lindley@baylor.edu
Network for the National Library of Medicine, Region 3, Health Information Outreach Grant Award 2023-2024 – Jamie Quinn (Project director), Dr. Debbie Shirey and Dr. Lisa Jones (Co-directors)
The Network for the National Library of Medicine Region 3, which is a part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and National Institutes of Health, awarded the Baylor University LHSON $25,000.00. Project title: “Fostering diversity awareness in nursing students to improve health disparities for underserved populations in Texas.” This outreach award sought to promote awareness of consumer health information and empower well-being among minority community members in geographically underserved areas of Texas and to train and develop diverse pre-nursing university students to explore extracurricular activities that increase representation and participation in NLM teaching and outreach. Community outreach was conducted by the undergraduate nursing Population Health students and Rio Grande Valley mission nursing students to both Dallas urban areas and the Rio Grande Valley rural areas and was successful in connecting African American and Hispanic individuals with consumer health materials that can improve chronic conditions and health outcomes.
For additional information, contact Jamie Quinn at Jamie_Quinn@baylor.edu
Medical Library Association, Librarians Without Borders, Ursula Poland International Scholarship Award 2023-2024 – Jamie Quinn (Project director), Dr. Tiffany Flood and Dr. Kelly Rossler (Co-directors)
The Medical Library Association awarded Baylor University LHSON a scholarship award in the amount of $1,000.00. Project title: “Developing Culturally Competent Consumer Health Literature to Support International Missions and Student Engagement.” This project supported Librarian cultivated consumer health materials to support educational activities nursing students conducted while on the 2023 summer mission trip to Ndola, Zambia in collaboration with Northrise University.
For additional information, contact Jamie Quinn at Jamie_Quinn@baylor.edu
Baylor University Research Committee (ONE-URC) 2023-2024 – Dr. Elizabeth Caldwell (Principal Investigator), Dr. Rebecca Meraz and Dr. Alicia Chang (Co-investigators)
Dr. Caldwell and Dr. Meraz of Baylor University LHSON and Dr. Chang, MD of The University of Texas, Austin/Dell Children’s Hospital received funding from the Texas Organization of Baccalaureate and Graduate Nursing Education (TOBGNE) Excellence in Teaching Research Grant in the amount of $4,688.00 to support their research: “The Potential Relationship between Health Literacy and Resilience in Adolescents with Sickle Cell Disease.” This project will inform an overall program of work investigating health literacy in adolescents with SCD and other chronic illnesses, with the goal to implement interventions that could lead to improved health outcomes within these populations.
For additional information, contact Dr. Rebecca Meraz at Rebecca_Meraz@baylor.edu
Texas Organization of Baccalaureate and Graduate Nursing Education Excellence in Teaching Research Grant 2023-2024 – Dr. Courtney Brandt (Project director) & Chloe Silcox (Co-director)
Dr. Brandt and Ms. Silcox received funding from the Texas Organization of Baccalaureate and Graduate Nursing Education (TOBGNE) Excellence in Teaching Research Grant in the amount of $2,000.00 to support their project titled, “Equipping New Nurses to Navigate End-of-Life Scenarios Alongside their Patients.” The aim of this project was to develop and implement innovative teaching strategies that allow students to engage directly in the death and dying process need to be integrated into pre-licensure curricula.
For additional information, contact Dr. Courtney Brandt at Courtney_Brandt@baylor.edu
National League for Nursing Research Grant/Nancy Langston Research Award 2022-2024 – Badowski, D., Rossler, K., Reiland, N., & Gembala, L.T. (Multi-PIs) received funding in the amount of $18,000.00 to support the study titled, “Teaching Motivational Interviewing Skills to Pre-Licensure Nursing Students: A Comparison of Simulated Telehealth, Simulation Gaming Technology, and Traditional Clinical Learning Environments.” The purpose of this study was to examine pre-licensure nursing student perceptions and effectiveness of a simulated telehealth patient care experiences compared to a simulated gaming technology experience or traditional clinical experience. Motivational Interviewing education module on empathetic communication skills.
For additional information, contact Dr. Kelly Rossler at Kelly_Rossler@baylor.edu
Sigma Theta Tau International Kappa Chi Chapter 2022-2024 – Dr. Kelly Rossler (Co-principal investigator) received funding from STTI Kappa Chi Chapter in the among of $2,000 to support the study titled, “Teaching Motivational Interviewing Skills to Pre-Licensure Nursing Students: A Comparison of Simulated Telehealth, Simulation Gaming Technology, and Traditional Clinical Learning Environments.”
For additional information, contact Dr. Kelly Rossler at Kelly_Rossler@baylor.edu
Discovery Grant Foundation 2022-2023 – Shopha Tserotas (Project director), Dr. Renee Jones, Dr. Erin Killingsworth, and Dr. Alona Angosta (Co-directors)
Shopha Tserotas, Dr. Renee Jones, Dr. Erin Killingsworth, and Dr. Alona Angosta received funding from the Discovery Foundation in the amount of $47,000.00 to support the project titled, “Using Simulation-Based Training with Undergraduate and Advanced Practice Nursing Students to Improve Skill Performance and Impact the Health and Well-being of Women.” This project would help expand the use of simulation-based training, specifically in Women's Preventive Health, with our undergraduate students and advanced practice nursing students in the Family Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Midwifery tracks.
For additional information, contact Shopha Tserotas at Shopha_Tserotas@baylor.edu
Southern Nursing Research Society 2023-2024 & Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing Dean’s Grant - Dr. Angelina Nguyen (Principal investigator) & Dr. Weiming Ke (Co-investigator)
Dr. Nguyen and Dr. Ke received a $7,500.00 grant from the Southern Nursing Research Society in 2023. The purpose of this study was to construct a Vietnamese survey set that would enable psychosocial phenotype categorization for Vietnamese Americans with or at risk for type 2 diabetes. Dr. Nguyen received an additional $3,850.00 intramural grant to expand this project to include additional surveys completed in English, allowing the identification of the major psychosocial phenotypes of this larger collective sample. Collaborators on this project include Dr. Miyong T. Kim from University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Tam H. Nguyen and Dr. Christopher Lee from Boston College.
For additional information, contact Dr. Lina Nguyen at Angelina_Nguyen@baylor.edu
HRSA Nurse Education Practice Quality Retention Simulation Education Training (NEPQR SET) 2022 - 2024 – Dr. Erin Killingsworth (Project Director)
The U.S Department of Health and Human Services awarded Baylor University a Nurse Education Practice Quality Retention Simulation Education Training grant for $498,315.00 in 2022. The purpose of the funded project is to enhance the simulation-based experiential learning opportunities for the distance-based accelerated bachelor’s in nursing track using emerging technology and competencies related to community/public health and interprofessional education to prepare them impact community and public health in rural areas. Three simulation-based learning activities incorporating the C/PHN Competencies, IPEC Competencies, and the National League for Nursing (NLN) Advancing Care Excellence (ACE) Series using telepresence robots and a comprehensive simulation management system with audio-visual components will be implemented. Drs. Adrianne Duvall and Marie Lindley are Simulation Project Coordinators of the grant along with Shopha Tserotas as the Simulation Education Specialist.
For additional information, contact Dr. Erin Killingsworth at Erin_Killingsworth@baylor.edu
Baylor University Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Achievement (URSA) Grant 2021-2022 – Dr. Angelina Nguyen & Thy Khong (Co-PIs)
Dr. Nguyen’s project titled, “Diabetes Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Care in Vietnamese Americans of Texas: Data from the 2015 – 2019 Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS)”, was funded $5,000.00 in 2021 through the Baylor University’s URSA Program. In collaboration with undergraduate nursing students, a secondary analysis of aggregated BRFSS data was conducted to examine health status and unmet needs among Asian American/Pacific Islanders with diabetes. Dr. Nguyen and Ms. Thy Khong were Co-PIs on this project. Collaborators on this project include Dr. Weiming Ke from Baylor University and Dr. Miyong T. Kim from the University of Texas at Austin.
For additional information, contact Dr. Lina Nguyen at Angelina_Nguyen@baylor.edu
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health 2020-2023
Baylor University’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing (LHSON) and Baylor Scott & White Research Institute received funding from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health. Co-Leading the research study was Dr.Kelly Rossler, LHSON Assistant Professor and INACSL Research Fellow and Dr. Ganesh Sankaranarayanan, Assistant Director, Center for Evidence Based Simulation, Academic Simulation Program, Baylor Scott & White Health.
For additional information, contact Dr. Kelly Rossler at Kelly_Rossler@baylor.edu
Baylor University, University Research Committee (URC) 2020-2021 – Dr. Angelina Nguyen (Principal investigator), Dr. Erin Killingsworth & Dr. Jonathan Tran (Co-investigators)
The URC awarded Dr. Nguyen, Dr. Killingsworth, and Dr. Tran from Baylor University $7,000.00 for their project titled, “Vietnamese Translations for the Tripartite Model of Risk Perception (TRIRISK), Acculturation Scale for Southeast Asians, and Spiritual Perspective Scale (SPS).” The purpose of this study was to culturally adapt (including Vietnamese language translations) instruments measuring the concepts of: (1) risk perception related to diabetes, (2) acculturation, and (3) spirituality.
For additional information, contact Dr. Lina Nguyen at Angelina_Nguyen@baylor.edu
THECB Nursing Innovation Grant Program 2020 -2021 – Dr. Erin Killingsworth (Project director) and Dr. Marie Lindley (Co-director)
Dr. Erin Killingsworth and Dr. Marie Lindley received $150,000.00 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) Nursing Innovation Grant Program (NIGP): Nursing & Allied Health-Supporting Clinical Learning to Mitigate Impediments due to COVID-19 in 2020. This grant provides funding to purchase equipment to allow for social distancing and infection control in the simulation lab, purchase telepresence robots to allow distance students to participate in learning experiences in the simulation lab, and the development of asynchronous and synchronous facilitated online clinicals using simulation in pediatrics and obstetrics.
For additional information, contact Dr. Erin Killingsworth at Erin_Killingsworth@baylor.edu