Leadership in Action: Alumni, Faculty, Staff and Student Milestones

Nursing Leaders

Aug. 1, 2017

By Diana Austin

Barbara Koenig to Lead Project Exploring California’s Physician Aid-in-Dying Law

Barbara Koenig Barbara Koenig, professor in the Institute for Health & Aging and director of the UCSF bioethics program, will lead a collaborative project to explore health care provider response to California’s End of Life Option Act (ELOA). The law took effect last June and allows terminally ill adults to request and receive aid-in-dying medications under certain circumstances. The ELOA project will create and disseminate resources to help organizations develop related policies and best practices.

The project, funded by a one-year, $314,000 grant from the California HealthCare Foundation and the Stupski Foundation, will also include a collaboration with UCLA to survey state institutions about their policies and experiences with the legislation. With the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California, the project team will organize a statewide meeting in September to allow stakeholders to discuss issues raised by the law’s implementation, share their experiences with related policy development, and plan research on health systems’ experiences with the law.

Koenig is working with a steering committee comprising representatives from health care organizations across the state, including Kaiser Permanente, the California Hospital Association, Sutter Health Bay Area and the California Department of Public Health.

Audrey Lyndon Is New Chair of Family Health Care Nursing

Audrey Lyndon On August 1, Associate Professor Audrey Lyndon became the new chair of the Department of Family Health Care Nursing.

A perinatal clinical nurse specialist (CNS) and a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, Lyndon is a graduate of the School’s Master’s Entry Program in Nursing (MEPN) and PhD degree programs, and has served as director of the School’s perinatal CNS program since joining the faculty in 2007.

Her work in patient safety and quality in inpatient maternity and neonatal care has received international acclaim, and she has worked with many organizations, including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the March of Dimes and the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom, on these issues.

As an educator, Lyndon has been involved in numerous efforts to expand and improve nursing education and further the School’s educational aims. She has participated in UC-CORO Systemwide Leadership Collaborative training and the School’s Diversity in Action (DIVA) program, and has chaired the School’s Faculty Council and co-chaired the first phase of the School’s Fiscal Health Workgroup.

Lyndon replaces Interim Chair Catherine Chesla, whom Dean Sandra Weiss commended for her excellent stewardship and invaluable contributions to the department and the School.

Monica McLemore Profiled by Campaign for Action

Monica McLemore Assistant Professor of Family Health Care Nursing Monica McLemore was profiled and interviewed in an article and accompanying video by the Campaign for Action, an initiative of the Center to Champion Nursing in America, the AARP Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The project aims to create a system in which nurses are essential partners in providing health care and promoting health.

In the interview, McLemore traces her career from her initial decision to go into nursing to her current accomplishments in the field of reproductive health and justice. She was the only nurse whose research was cited in the American Academy of Nursing’s statement on the landmark Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down a restrictive Texas abortion law; and her community engagement work with women of color at social and medical risk for preterm birth was recognized by the Obama administration at the October 2016 White House Frontiers conference.

McLemore also advocated for dismantling the barriers between nursing research and clinical practice, nurse engagement in the legislative and policymaking process, and educating clinicians about health and wellness in the context of justice.

Diana Taylor and Monica McLemore on ACA Repeal’s Effect on Women and Families

Diana Taylor A repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), currently being considered by Congress, "would be devastating for the health and economic security of women and families,” wrote the authors of an opinion piece published July 23 on HuffPost.

The article, penned by a group of six nurse-scientists – including the School’s Professor Emerita Diana Taylor and Assistant Professor Monica McLemore, along with Rush University's Mona Shattell, the University of Southern California’s Ellen F. Olshansky, the University of Florida’s Versie Johnson-Mallard and the University of Washington’s Nancy Fugate Woods – notes that repeal could strip coverage from the millions of women and families who obtained health insurance through ACA exchanges or the law’s Medicaid expansion, and would place a particular burden on low-income families and older women.

The authors cite several other problems with current replacement proposals for the ACA, including decreased access to coordinated care, elimination of protection for people with pre-existing health conditions, lack of guaranteed maternity coverage and more barriers to obtaining contraception.

Penny Brennan Publishes on Late-Life Drinking Problems

Penny Brennan Penny Brennan, adjunct professor in the Institute for Health & Aging, has co-authored a study on late-life drinking problems.

The study, published in the May 21 online edition of the Center of Alcohol Studies’ Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, looked at drinking-pattern variability as predictors for later-life drinking problems. Brennan and her co-investigators found that both high-average levels of drinking and episodic heavy drinking patterns may raise the risk of developing drinking problems in later life.

Marsha Michie in GenomeWeb on Noninvasive Prenatal Testing

Marsha Michie A July 14 GenomeWeb article on noninvasive prenatal testing quoted Assistant Professor Marsha Michie, of the Institute for Health & Aging, regarding a recently launched noninvasive prenatal test (NIPT) to identify certain genetic disorders.

Michie, an anthropologist and empirical bioethicist who studies social and ethical issues in genetics, noted concerns regarding the positive predictive value (PPV) of cell-free DNA screening tests, and called for more published clinical data on single-gene NIPTs.