School of Nursing

Dr. Belcher has a background in community health nursing, with emphasis on school health, childhood obesity, and immunization compliance.  Her academic interests focus on action research, civic engagement, community collaboration, service learning, and interdisciplinary education for health professionals. Outcomes from her work demonstrate the importance of working collaboratively with groups to reduce health disparities and to improve the health of communities. Dr. Belcher was recently appointed chair for the Department of Environments for Health, IU School of Nursing. For additional information, see http://myprofile.cos.com/abelche.

Carol Decker's research interests include family adaptation to cancer, intimacy, and sexuality related to cancer and couple's communication.

Dr. Duffy is a graduate of St. Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing in Providence, RI.  She received her BSN at Salve Regina College in Newport, RI, and holds masters and doctoral degrees from The Catholic University of America.

Dr. Duffy is best known for her leadership in maximizing patient outcomes and has a history of theory-based innovations that have guided practice and policy changes in acute care settings.   Dr. Duffy worked with two multidisciplinary teams to examine factors associated with outcomes from intensive care and successful cardiac interventions. She developed and implemented a Center for Outcomes Analysis where she fostered a solid program of practice-based research; data generated at this center influenced practice changes that improved clinical and cost outcomes.  Her expert consultation on nursing-sensitive patient outcomes led to the ANA’s National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) allowing hospitals nationwide to accelerate improvements in nursing care quality.  Likewise, Dr. Duffy has provided expert leadership to the NLN’s Nursing Education Minimum Data Set and the Nursing Education Research Advisory Committee.

Dr. Duffy was the first to link nurse caring to patient outcomes through research. She designed the Caring Assessment Tool in multiple versions and is currently testing the Quality-Caring Model, a relationship-centered foundation for practice. Dr. Duffy is an outspoken proponent of quality healthcare, particularly for hospitalized older adults and employs innovative approaches to educate healthcare providers on relationship-building.

Dr. Habermann’s research focuses on improving the quality of life for persons and their family members living with chronic, progressive neurologic illness. Her preliminary work in this area has been qualitative, describing the needs and challenges experienced by persons with Parkinson’s disease and their spouses and how they manage as a family. In collaboration with colleagues, this work led to a five-year skill building intervention trial for family caregivers of those with chronic neurologic illness.

Habermann’s current work focuses on identifying the dyad needs in couples with advanced to end stage Parkinson’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Dr. Habermann serves as a co-director of the T32, Training in Behavioral Nursing. She is active in a number of nursing organizations having previously served on the Board of the Southern Nursing Research Society and as Chair of the American Nurses Foundation Research Review Committee.  

Dr. Heo earned her bachelor’s and masters from Pusan National University, Pusan, South Korea, and her PhD, with a focus on cardiovascular nursing, from the University of Kentucky. She is an assistant professor at the IU School of Nursing and a member of Sigma Theta Tau; American Heart Association, Council on Cardiovascular Nursing; Heart Failure Society of America; American Association of Heart Failure Nurses; and American Association of Critical-care Nurses.

Heo has been funded by the American Heart Association as the principal investigator on the study “Psychosocial and Behavioral Factors, Physical Symptoms, and Heart Failure Outcomes.” She is widely published and has conducted numerous presentations on the subject of heart failure. Dr. Heo reviews manuscripts for the Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine and the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing.

Meg Moorman earned her bachelor’s from Indiana University and her master’s in Nursing Science from Drexel University. She has a background in obstetrical nursing and is a board certified Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner.  Her areas of interest are complementary and alternative care and women’s health.  She has worked as a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner for 11 years and has taught prenatal classes.  Professional organizations include the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health, Sigma Theta Tau, the Association for Holistic Nurses, and the Association for Women’s Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses.   

Dr. Otte's research focuses on cancer symptom management with an emphasis on sleep-wake disturbances experienced by breast cancer survivors (BCS). Dr. Otte has been funded by Oncology Nursing Foundation, National Institutes of Nursing Research, American Cancer Society, and Society of Behavioral Medicine.  She was intimately involved in development of methods for scientific background and measurement of sleep for the acupuncture intervention. Her past experience includes intense reviews of sleep disturbance literature in both cancer and non-cancer populations. During her doctoral work she developed an exploratory psychobiological model that identifies physiological, psychological, environmental, and behavioral predictors of sleep disturbances and resulting health-related outcomes for poor sleep and sleep disturbances. She conducted a review of theoretical models used in the BCS literature providing support for the development of a psychobiological model of sleep-wake disturbances in BCS. She completed a descriptive study identifying predictors of prevalence and severity of sleep problems experienced by BCS.

Terrilynn Fox Quillen began her professional nursing practice in 1980 as a diploma graduate of St. Agnes Medical Center. She completed her baccalaureate at Indiana Wesleyan University in 2001 and was also commissioned as a Faith Community (parish) Nurse.  In 2007, she received her master’s degree in community health nursing and was also commissioned as a Minister of Consolation by the National Catholic Ministry to the Bereaved. 

Quillen is a freelance writer and editor, and contributes regularly to nursing textbooks, academic journals, and consumer-oriented books and magazines. She volunteers as the Faith Community Educator for New Life in Christ Ministries, Indianapolis.  Her academic interests include faith community dynamics and spiritual care, intercultural communication, health literacy, and learning differences or disabilities, particularly dyslexia and dysgraphia.

Dr. Sheri Robb is a visiting associate research scientist and post-doctoral fellow on the Training in Research for Behavioral Oncology and Cancer Control Program. Dr. Robb’s program of research focuses on the development and testing of music-based interventions to diminish symptom distress and improve health-related quality of life in children/adolescents with cancer. Dr. Robb collaborates on research that has received funding from the National Association for Recording Arts & Sciences, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Nursing Research, and the Children’s Oncology Group.

Dr. Robb completed her bachelor of music in Music Therapy degree at The Florida State University, masters of education in Early Childhood Special Education at Auburn University, and doctor of philosophy in Music Education/Music Therapy at The University of Kansas. She has published her research in the Journal of Music Therapy, Psycho-Oncology, Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, and Music Therapy Perspectives. Internationally recognized for her work in pediatric music therapy, Dr. Robb was awarded an Outstanding Research/Publications Award (2006) from the American Music Therapy Association. 

Dr. Diane Von Ah is an assistant professor in Adult Health at the School of Nursing at Indiana University in Indianapolis, Indiana. She completed her BSN and MSN from the University of Iowa and her doctorate from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2003.  From 2003 to 2005, Dr. Von Ah was an assistant professor at the University of Louisville and served as the program coordinator for the oncology clinical nurse specialist track. From 2005 to 2008, Dr. Von Ah was a post-doctoral fellow on the National Institute of Nursing Research-funded training grant at Indiana University School of Nursing. Her research in cancer symptom management has been funded by the Susan G. Komen Foundation (Birmingham Affiliate), Sigma Theta Tau International (Nu Chapter), Oncology Nursing Society Foundation, and the Indiana University General Clinical Research Center.  Dr. Von Ah has been recognized nationally for her research and has published her work in Cancer Nursing, Research in Nursing and Health, and Oncology Nursing Forum. She also received a first prize poster award at the 9th National Conference on Cancer Nursing Research, was named the 2008 Midwest Nursing Research Society Women's Health Research Section New Investigator, and began a Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship in August, 2008.

Dr. Kim Wagler Ziner is an assistant scientist in the Center for Research and Scholarship, IU School of Nursing and behavioral research recruitment core coordinator at Indiana University Simon Cancer Center. Dr. Ziner completed her BSN at Ball State University, her MSN at the University of Rochester, New York, and her doctor of philosophy at Indiana University.

Dr. Ziner's research experience includes both clinical and behavioral research with a research and scholarship focus on fear of breast cancer recurrence in long term survivors of breast cancer and recruitment to behavioral research.  Dr. Ziner is currently funded as principle investigator by the Walther Cancer Institute and serves as co-investigator on an American Cancer Society grant with Dr. Victoria Champion, PI. Dr. Ziner has also served on national peer review panels and integrated review panels for breast cancer research.

Her clinical experience spans 25 years of oncology nursing including both in-patient and out-patient cancer centers.  She is also a breast cancer survivor who participates in breast cancer advocacy work at local, regional, and national levels. Clinical practice recognition includes several excellence in practice awards including the Oncology Nursing Society's Excellence in Breast Cancer Education Award, the Wellness Community, Central Indiana, Healing Spirit Award, the American Cancer Society's Prevention Programs Award, and the Glenn Erwin, Jr, Experience Excellence Award.