Research Dean and Professor Jeanne Alhusen Elected to Academy Committee

Associate dean for nursing research Jeanne Alhusen, a maternal mental health scholar and a nurse scientist who's earned more than $10 million in funding across the expanse of her professional career, has been elected to the American Academy of Nursing's Fellow selection committee. 

The appointment, effective at the conclusion of the Academy's Health Policy Conference in October 2025, means that Alhusen and her 10 fellow committee members will help guide which Academy applicants—leaders from across policy, research, administration, practice, and academia—will ultimately become American Academy of Nursing Fellows, so-called “FAANs,” among the highest honors a nurse may earn.

Alhusen, who was inducted into the Academy in 2018, was one of just 30 nurses from around the world to be inducted into Sigma Nursing's International Researcher Hall of Fame in 2024, and has earned funding, accolades, and praise for her scientific pursuits as well as the quality and warmth of her mentoring and teaching. Repeatedly lauded by AWHONN, alma maters Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and Villanova University, an AACN Leadership alumna and board member for the Women's Initiative, Alhusen was named the UVA Health University Medical Center Endowed Professor of Nursing in 2022, earned an MLK Award in 2023, and has twice earned the School's Research Mentoring Award.

Nursing Science Focused on the Lived Experiences of Women with Disabilities

A nurse practitioner, Alhusen studies the experiences of women living with disabilities who are disproportionately impacted by violence, and, with their children, often suffer the ill effects of these factors throughout their lives. Many of her findings are stark and unsettling: in a study examining unintended pregnancy, more than one-third of disabled women reported that they became pregnant as a result of sexual violence; they are nearly 20% more likely to experience an unintentional pregnancy than women without disabilities; and women with disabilities are 2.5 times more likely than their non-disabled peers to be victims of violence during the perinatal period.

Prior to that work, Alhusen was the first scientist to demonstrate population-level links between exposure to violence during pregnancy and infants’ risk of being born small-for-gestational-age, work that's been cited more than 4,000 times and included in the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommendations on screening for intimate partner violence (IPV) to prevent perinatal depression. These findings, in part, also led to the CDC's recommendation that all U.S. states and territories collect data on disability in the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. They also spurred Alhusen's appointment as chair of the American Academy of Nursing's trauma and violence expert panel and the American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologist's expert work group on maternal mental health, one of only just a few nurses to serve in this capacity.

Over the last decade alone, Alhusen has published more than 60 scholarly papers, presented at more than 20 conferences within the last five years, and is regularly sought after to provide thought leadership and expertise on the topic of disability, pregnancy, mental health, and reproductive care access, including at major Academy events. In summer 2025, she was one of two nurse scientists asked to present on Capitol Hill as part of an American Academy of Nursing event with Illinois Congresswoman Lauren Underwood as part of the Academy's SAVE Campaign ("Science Adds Value for Everyone").

In addition to Alhusen's science and scholarship, she leads the School's Office for Nursing Research's popular summer and academic year internship programs, on-ramps for undergraduate students to both consider and move into research roles.  A noted champion of early career assistant professors and mentor to PhD in nursing students as well, Alhusen's colleagues recognize her steadfast commitment to their success, and have honored her twice in the last four years with a Research Mentoring Award.

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Goal 3 - Position the School as a leader in nursing science, from discovery to translation

The School’s researchers seek to address some of the most pressing health inequities of our time by leading groundbreaking investigations, disseminating findings in ways that impact our local and global communities, and by recruiting and supporting nurse scientists at all career stages. The benefits of nursing science engage all our faculty and learners, supporting diverse scholarly and dissemination efforts. Our undergraduate and graduate curricula require students to engage in research and other scholarly endeavors and by offering opportunities for them to collaborate with mentors and peers to disseminate their work.