News Briefs

Briefs

Pierce elected secretary of the
American Nurses Association

Dr. Susan Foley Pierce, professor in the School of Nursing, has been elected secretary of the American Nurses Association.

Pierce, who will serve a two-year term, was elected in June. The American Nurses Association is the only full-service professional organization for the 2.9 million registered nurses in the United States. Pierce will also serve as liaison to American Nurses Association's Congress on Nursing Practice, which maintains the "Code of Ethics for Nurses," "The Scope and Standards of Nursing Practice" and "Nursing's Social Policy Statement."

Pierce has been a faculty member at UNC for 30 years. Her research and scholarship has focused on nursing ethics and end-of-life care.

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Van Tilburg receives NIH award to support
research into treating children's abdominal pain

Dr. Miranda van Tilburg, an assistant professor in the School of Medicine's Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, has received a $499,230 award from the National Institutes of Health's Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research Program. The program provides up to two years of funds to promote re-entry into biomedical and behavioral research careers.

Van Tilburg left her research career in 2001 because of child bearing and child rearing demands. In 2002, she returned to work part time at UNC. The re-entry program award allows her to resume her career full time.

Van Tilburg's research focuses on the psychosocial aspects of pediatric functional gastrointestinal disorders. With funds from the grant, she will further develop and test a home-based guided imagery treatment for chronic abdominal pain of functional origin in children ages 7 to 15.

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School of Nursing contact: Amanda Meyers, (919)-966-4619 or amanda_meyers@unc.edu
School of Medicine contact: Tom Hughes, (919) 966-6047 or tahughes@unch.unc.edu
News Services contact: Becky Oskin, (919) 962-8596 or becky_oskin@unc.edu