Alhusen, Esquivel Inducted as Academy Fellows

On Nov. 4, 2018, at the annual American Academy of Nursing ceremony and gala, associate professors Jeanne Alhusen and Jill Howie-Esquivel will be inducted as Academy Fellows, among the highest professional honors a nurse may receive.

The nation’s nearly 2,400 Fellows include leaders in education, management, practice and research who devote time and energy to the organization and engage with other health care leaders to transform the American health care system.

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Nearly half of all full-time UVA Nursing faculty are Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing

Alhusen and Howie-Esquivel bring to 45 the School’s number of national academies fellows, and to 32 its number of Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing, nearly half of all full-time faculty.

Alhusen - whose research is focused on improving maternal mental health and, consequently, improving early childhood outcomes, particularly for families living in poverty - is currently studying the effect of a mindful eating intervention (MB-PEAPOD) on obese and overweight pregnant women and their babies, and studying the experience of women living with disabilities and their ability to access family planning and sexual health services. She was also chosen by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing for its Leadership for Academic Nursing Program, and is a board member and honoree of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.

After earning a BSN from Villanova, an MSN from Duke, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University, Alhusen completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Medicine in 2013. As a board-certified advanced practice family nurse practitioner, she brings extensive professional nursing experience with a particular interest in the health disparities in maternal and child health.

Howie Esquivel, coordinator of the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program, is a board-certified family and acute care nurse practitioner with a particular interest in patients with and at risk for serious cardiac conditions. Howie-Esquivel’s research focuses on improving symptoms for people heart failure by strengthening their understanding and ability to care for themselves and manage their symptoms.

Esquivel earned her BSN from the University of San Francisco and her MS and PhD from the University of California, San Francisco, and is active in the American Heart Association, the Heart Failure Society of America, Sigma Theta Tau, and the Pulmonary Hypertension Association.

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