Credit: UTHSC
Memphis, Tenn. (August 13, 2020) – Ansley Grimes Stanfill, PhD, RN, associate dean of Research for the UTHSC College of Nursing, has been selected for the American Academy of Nursing’s 2020 Class of Fellows. Dr. Stanfill is also an alumna of UTHSC, earning her PhD in Nursing Science at the university in 2014.
The newest Fellows represent 39 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. territory of Guam and 13 other countries. The Academy comprises more than 2,700 nursing leaders, who are experts in policy, research, administration, practice, and academia. Among the three nurses from Tennessee selected for this honor in 2020, two are alumnae of the UTHSC College of Nursing.
“It is a tremendous honor to join this esteemed organization,” Dr. Stanfill said. “The membership of the American Academy of Nursing is truly changing the face of nursing in the areas of practice, research, and policy. I look forward to building new connections with other Fellows, and to using these collaborations to better advocate for my patients.”
The application process to become a Fellow is rigorous. A committee of elected Fellows reviews hundreds of applications and selects new Fellows based on their contributions to advancing the health of the public. The inductees will be recognized for their contributions to health care at the Academy’s annual Transforming Health, Driving Policy Conference, taking place virtually on October 29-31, 2020.
Induction into the Academy is a major milestone in a nursing career. Dr. Stanfill’s induction will bring the number of Fellows of the Academy on the UTHSC College of Nursing faculty to seven. Also being inducted this year is Belinda Mandrell, PhD, RN, director of the Nursing Research Division of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dr. Mandrell is a 2008 graduate of the UTHSC PhD program in Nursing Science, serves as a volunteer faculty member for the College of Nursing, and is a member of the college’s Alumni Board of Directors.
Dr. Stanfill joined the UTHSC College of Nursing faculty in 2016. She received a BS in neuroscience from Vanderbilt University in 2003 and worked as a research assistant in genetics and neuroimaging research before receiving her BSN in 2007 from Saint Louis University. She has clinical experience in neurology and neurosurgery, endoscopy, and critical care. She received her PhD in 2014 from UTHSC for her dissertation titled “Dopaminergic genetic contributions to obesity in kidney transplant recipients.” She was awarded an NIH/NINR F31 training grant for this project.
Prior to assuming her faculty role, Dr. Stanfill also completed postdoctoral training in omics research at the University of Pittsburgh, supported by the NIH/NINR T32 “Targeted Research and Academic Training of Nurses in Genomics.” She is currently PI of a $1.1million NIH/NINR R01 titled “A multivariate predictive model for long-term disability post subarachnoid hemorrhage in Caucasian and African American populations.” She received a supplemental award for this project to investigate genotype and gene expression interactions using the GTEx database. She also serves as a co-investigator on an NIH/NIA funded grant investigating the potential of miR-21 as a biomarker for vascular dementia. Although her primary appointment is in the College of Nursing, Dr. Stanfill holds a joint appointment as an associate professor in the College of Medicine’s Department of Genetics, Genomics, and Informatics, and an appointment in the UTHSC Neuroscience Institute.
In addition to her NIH support, Dr. Stanfill has received grants from Sigma Theta Tau, the International Society of Nurses in Genetics, and the Southern Nursing Research Society. She has been published many times in basic science and nursing research journals and regularly presents her work at local, regional, national, and international conferences.
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As Tennessee’s only public, statewide, academic health system, the mission of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is to bring the benefits of the health sciences to the achievement and maintenance of human health through education, research, clinical care, and public service, with a focus on the citizens of Tennessee and the region. The main campus in Memphis includes six colleges: Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. UTHSC also educates and trains medicine, pharmacy, and/or health professions students, as well as medical residents and fellows, at major sites in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Nashville. For more information, visit http://www.
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