People Group Archives: Research Areas

Dr. Samantha Stephenson is a dedicated certified acute care pediatric nurse practitioner and nurse educator with over two decades of experience in pediatric healthcare. She currently serves as a faculty member at the University of Central Florida’s College of Nursing and continues her clinical practice as a provider in the pediatric emergency department at local […]

As a critical care- and case management-trained registered nurse, military veteran and dependent, and food pantry volunteer, Dr. Crook had the opportunity to work in multiple states in the U.S., where she identified not only the existence of widespread food and nutritional insecurity but a connection between nutrition, chronic inflammation and chronic disease. Her research […]

Associate Professor Rui Xie holds appointments in both the UCF College of Nursing and the UCF College of Sciences in the Department of Statistics and Data Science and is the Principal Investigator at the university’s Artificial Intelligence and Statistics for Health and Nursing Research Lab. His research encompasses the domains of statistics, biostatistics, machine learning […]

Jennie Wagner has led and taught RN to BSN and RN to MSN programs at East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has actively served on several accreditation agencies. Currently, Wagner is a board member and secretary for the Lactation Education Accreditation and Approval Review Committee (LEAARC), an appointed […]

Hyojung Kim is a lecturer teaching nutrition at the UCF College of Nursing. Her research interests lie in nutritional epidemiology, primarily focusing on the relationship between polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamin B6, and inflammation-related diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and liver diseases, using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). She also conducts research on […]

Ayse Malatyali is a Jonas Scholar with a priority research area of cognitive aging. She focuses her research primarily on biological, behavioral and social risk factors of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) and falls among underserved older adults. Her additional areas of research include healthcare utilization, palliative care and advanced care planning for individuals […]

Amanda “Mandi” Houston is a lecturer at the University of Central Florida College of Nursing, and two-time Knight nurse alumna. She is a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator and focused her PhD dissertation on the impact of simulation in undergraduate nursing education, looking specifically at knowledge retention and cognitive load. Her continued research interests focus on […]

Dr. Vivian Schutz is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Nursing Practice at the University of Central Florida. With over 18 years of experience in nursing education—12 in Brazil and 6 in the United States—she brings a deep foundation in clinical expertise and academic leadership. Before transitioning to academia, Dr. Schutz worked as […]

Mona Shattell is the chair of the Department of Nursing Systems, the Hugh F. and Jeannette G. McKean Endowed Chair, and a professor in the UCF College of Nursing. An internationally recognized mental health and psychiatric nursing expert, Shattell is the editor of the Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, and the author […]

Carmen Giurgescu is the Chatlos Foundation Endowed Chair and associate dean of research at UCF’s College of Nursing, which is named among the nation’s top nursing schools for NIH funding. Giurgescu is a world-renowned maternal health researcher who focuses her efforts on reducing preterm births to improve outcomes for new mothers and their babies. Her […]