NEWS

CHAPEL HILL -- Dr. Betty Ferrell, an expert in pain management, quality of life and end-of-life care, will speak on the future of pain research March 1 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ferrell will speak on "The Science and Art of Pain Management" for this year’s Kemble Lecture, to be held at 3 p.m. at the Carolina Inn. UNC’s School of Nursing sponsors the lecture.

The event is free, and a reception honoring noted pain specialist and former UNC nursing professor Dr. Jo Ann Dalton will follow. Dalton recently retired from UNC after a nearly 30-year career as a nursing instructor and researcher.

Ferrell, a research scientist at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., is the lead researcher of several studies on care for cancer patients and survivors. She is particularly noted for her work on an American Cancer Society-funded study on palliative surgery and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded End of Life Nursing Education Consortium.

She also serves as the chairperson for the Southern California Cancer Pain Initiative.

Dalton is a nationally recognized expert on pain assessment, management and treatment. Her research on cognitive behavioral therapy, or non-pharmacological treatment such as relaxation and thought-refocusing to alleviate pain, is considered groundbreaking among cancer researchers.

As the co-founder of the N.C. Cancer Pain Initiative, she has served as a resource for the N.C. General Assembly in formulating statewide health policy. She also is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and recently received the N.C. Nurses Association Board of Trustees Outstanding Service Award.

Dalton is the interim associate dean for academic affairs and chair of the adult and elder health nursing department at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing.

The Kemble Lecture was established in 1970 to honor Dr. Elizabeth L. Kemble, the first dean of UNC’s School of Nursing. Kemble was instrumental in the creation of the state’s first collegiate school of nursing at UNC in 1950. The annual lecture brings nursing scholars to Chapel Hill for the discussion of timely nursing matters and in recent years has honored an outstanding retired faculty member.

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Note: Dalton can be reached at jdalton@email.unc.edu or Jdalto2@emory.edu

School of Nursing contact: Sunny Smith Nelson, (919) 966-1412 or sunny_nelson@unc.edu