News from Cizik School of Nursing

Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Dean Diane Santa Maria’s latest grant, from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, will fund a pilot project to tailor and test a mindfulness-based intervention designed for delivery to youth staying in homeless shelters.

Diane M. Santa Maria, DrPH, MSN, RN, FAAN, has been appointed dean of the Jane and Robert Cizik School of Nursing at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), effective Tuesday, Sept. 1. In this role, Santa Maria will serve as the Jane and Robert Cizik Distinguished Chair and the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair in Nursing Education Leadership.

A team led by Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth’s Interim Dean Diane Santa Maria will expand its research of vulnerable youth to examine COVID-19 risks through a two-year, supplemental grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health.

Congratulations to Rebecca Bergh, MSN, RN, CNM, the first Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth PhD student to receive the prestigious Jonas Nursing and Veterans Healthcare scholarship. The award will fund her dissertation research on the mental health needs and challenges faced by young parents experiencing homelessness.

(July 2, 2020) Santa Maria, D., Cuccaro, P., Bender, K. et al. Feasibility of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention with Sheltered Youth Experiencing Homelessness. J Child Fam Stud 29, 261–272 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01583-6

Daphne Hernandez, PhD, is expanding her work with Hispanic immigrant families through a new study that will seek to understand where parents and teens get information about COVID-19, their beliefs about the disease, and how socioeconomic factors are affecting their health behaviors. The overall impact of COVID-19 and other stressors on mental health will also be examined.