Paula Riess Sherwood, PhD, RN, CNRN, FAAN

Biography

Professor Paula Sherwood is a nurse scientist with an expansive, impressive career mentoring developing faculty members, students, and future nurse scientists. With four R01 grants totaling more than $8 million, and disseminated findings in more than 100 peer reviewed manuscripts, she has been tapped for leadership roles with the National Institute for Nursing Research, the National Cancer Institute, the Oncology Nursing Society, and the Neuroscience Nursing Foundation.

A Fulbright alumna connected to a host of international research collaborators, Sherwood also served as the United States leader on a multi-nation grant sponsored by the European Union designed to evaluate the quality of cancer care, and is currently lead investigator on another multi-country evaluation of healthcare utilization for neurology-oncology care. In addition to becoming a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2011, Sherwood earned a CANS “Investigator with a Brilliant Future Award,” a New Investigator Award from the American Psychosocial Oncology Society, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing's Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

Sherwood earned a PhD from Michigan State, an MSN from the University of Iowa, and a BSN from JMU, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh before accepting a faculty position there in 2005, until her 2024 arrival at UVA. A Clinical Nurse Specialist and a certified registered neuroscience nurse, she is a member of and leader in the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses, the National Brain Tumor Foundation, the European Association of Neuro-Oncology, and many other professional organizations. She co-founded and is an active member of the International Consortium of Neuro-Oncology Caregivers, an organization designed to unite supportive care researchers in neuro-oncology caregiving across the globe.