Two Gator Nurses have received Fulbright scholarships this year. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the State Department.

Cathy Levon Campbell (B.S.N. 1986, M.S.N. 2000, Ph.D. 2004) is an associate professor of nursing at the University of Virginia School of Nursing. Campbell’s research and clinical interests are focused on hospice and palliative care decision-making and outcomes. Her program of research is focusing on end-of-life decision-making, exploring rural and ethnic/racial perspectives on patient/caregiver satisfaction with hospice services, and educating nurses in rural communities about pain management.

Campbell’s Fulbright Scholar Award will allow her to travel to South Africa in summer 2017 and Thailand in summer 2018 to interview community health workers, members of the interprofessional medical team, and key stakeholders about the role of community health workers in palliative care in rural communities.

Her goal is to develop formal training programs to expand palliative care practices in places where it has existed only informally.

Carla Fry (Ph.D. 2012) is the undergraduate director of the Nathan M. Bisk Center for Online Learning and director for the Keigwin School of Nursing’s R.N. to B.S.N. Program at Jacksonville University. She departs for Belize in late 2017 and will return the following May. While in Belize, Fry will work with the University of Belize and teach nursing courses, assist with curricular design, and conduct research on health disparities and vaccine uptake, consistent with her doctoral dissertation focus.

One of Fry’s passions is increasing affordable, accessible education, and she said she looks forward to helping influence population health trends with her work at the University of Belize, which offers an undergraduate nursing degree focusing on public health.

With a background in studying levels of trust in health care providers in the United States, and overall fears and knowledge deficits as related to vaccines, Fry plans to spend the research component of her scholarship trip looking into vaccine attitudes, beliefs and practices in Belize. She said she would like to examine the similarities and differences in the challenges to increase vaccination adherence between Belize and the U.S.

She said her 14-year-old daughter will attend school in Belize for the semester. They plan to travel to the Central American nation on their 36-foot sailboat with Fry’s partner, Curt.