UIC Nursing has two new LEADRS
UIC Nursing-affiliated scholars fill two of 12 available seats in an innovative new research leadership program.
UIC Nursing assistant professor Sarah Martha and postdoctoral fellow Juanita Darby, PhD ’26, MSN ’23, BSN ’22, are among the 20 researchers comprising the inaugural cohort of Midwest LEADRS. An initiative of the Indiana University School of Nursing, the program is designed to prepare nurse scientists and researchers from related health professions to study how non-biological factors, such as housing, transportation, education and other community conditions, influence people’s health and well-being.
Each of three planned cohorts in the program will include eight scholars from Indiana University and 12 from other Midwest-based schools and institutions. The program is supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research.
Over the course of nine months, participants build on their research skills through online coursework, mentorship, and collaborative projects that connect academic research with community needs.
“Being selected [for the fellowship] is both an honor and a meaningful affirmation of my commitment to advancing health equity through rigorous, community-engaged research,” says Darby, whose dissertation examined the impact of social determinants of health on pain management in adults with sickle cell disease.
Key to the Midwest LEADRS program is that fellows will collaborate with community partners on service-learning projects that address current health-related issues and help organizations strengthen programs, evaluate outcomes and identify future funding opportunities. The goal is to ensure that research findings move beyond academic settings and contribute to meaningful improvements in people’s lives.
By the end of the program, participants are expected to develop research proposals, present their work to professional audiences, and contribute to publications and conference presentations.
“This is an opportunity to design research that addresses systemic social barriers and nonbiological factors,” says Martha, whose research strives to reduce symptom burden and to improve rehabilitation and quality-of-life and in people with stroke and traumatic brain injury. “I’m excited to develop practical research interventions that can help community partners to improve their services within Indiana and to expand the impact to the Chicago stroke and cerebrovascular communities.”