Careers & Student Bios

Lindsay Batek, ND, MS, RN, FNP-C

Lindsay Batek is a naturopathic doctor and family nurse practitioner who is a fourth-year doctoral student at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. She is the recipient of the Loretta Ford Fellowship and Katharine Donohue Award. She works clinically in her private naturopathic practice and has worked as a nurse in public health settings as a school nurse and in the Monroe County Health Department. Her research interests include sexual health promotion and health literacy in adolescents and young adults, integrative health, and global health. Her dissertation research entitled “Positive Deviance and Health Literacy: Underexplored Concepts for Successful Translational Science” is funded by a UR CTSI grant and will explore the relationship between sexual and reproductive health literacy and healthcare access in Mexican American young women in Upstate NY.

Contact Information: Lindsay_Batek@urmc.rochester.edu

Sunita Pokhrel Bhattarai, MS, RN

Sunita Pokhrel Bhattarai is an international doctoral student at the University of Rochester School of Nursing studying cardiovascular nursing. Her research focus is on characterizing the electrographic changes among acute heart failure patients who present to the Emergency Department. Bhattarai works as a research assistant in the Cardiovascular Research Lab and on the QUAFFER Study (Heart Failure) at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She is also a member of the Eastern Nurses Research Society and the Nepal Critical Care Nurses Association and serves as a registered nurse on the Nepal Nursing Council. She earned her master’s in emergency and critical care nursing from the Erasmus Mundus in collaboration with the University of Oviedo, University of Algarve, Polytechnic Institute of Santarém and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, and bachelor’s degree from Tribhuvan University in Nepal.

Melanie D. Bobry, BS, RN, OCN

Melanie D. Bobry is a doctoral student at the University of Rochester School of Nursing in the MS-PhD Combined Accelerated Program. She also works as a research assistant on Connect for Caregivers (PI: Norton), a pilot study of the Rochester Roybal Center for Social Ties and Aging Research. Bobry will earn her master's degree in nursing education in May 2022 and has completed an advanced certificate in online teaching from the Warner School of Education. Her research focus is on understanding the experience of loneliness in individuals with cancer. Bobry is a member of the Eastern Nursing Research Society , and Oncology Nursing Society and serves as the activity coordinator for Sigma Theta Tau, Epsilon Xi chapter. Bobry was awarded the 2021 Nurse of Distinction by the Genesee Valley Oncology Nursing Society, Oncology Nursing Foundation Masters Academic Scholarship, and the Jeanne T. Grace Excellence in Evidence-Based Practice Award from Sigma Theta Tau, Epsilon Xi chapter.

Pamela Brashich

Wonkyung Chang, RN, BSN

Wonkyung Chang is a doctoral student at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. Before moving to the U.S., she worked as a psychiatric nurse in an inpatient alcohol treatment center in South Korea. She continues to practice as a certified nurse at Hillside Children’s Center, where she cares for youth who have experienced significant trauma. Based on her clinical experiences, she is particularly interested in mechanisms underlying the relationship between early traumatic experiences and drinking behaviors in later lives. She plans to pursue a master’s program in the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner specialty during her PhD program. She is also an active member of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association.

Yuri Choi, MSN, RN

Yuri Choi is a third-year international doctoral student at the University of Rochester School of Nursing focused on promoting health in adolescents and young adults who are survivors of cancer. Choi serves as a member of the UR School of Nursing oncology nursing team and as a research assistant with Meghan Underhill-Blazey. Yuri earned both her master's and bachelor's degrees in nursing from the Catholic University of Korea. She is an active member of the Oncology Nursing Society, Genesee Valley Oncology Nursing Society Chapter, and the Eastern Nursing Research Society. She is an associate board member of the 13Thirty Cancer Connect, a local Rochester, NY non-profit organization for adolescent and young adult cancer survivors.

Nasim Hurd, MS, RN

Nasim Hanif Hurd is a recipient of the Loretta Ford Fellowship and is a student in the MS-PhD Combined Accelerated program. He holds bachelor of arts and bachelor of nursing science degrees from the University of Rochester and a master's degree in conflict resolution from Portland State University. Nasim is a psychiatric nurse and practices at Strong Memorial Hospital.

Faith Lambert, MS, RN, FNP-BC

Faith Lambert is a doctoral student, research assistant and graduate of the Family Nurse Practitioner program at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. Lambert's research interests include health disparities in marginalized populations, pediatric to adult care transition, adolescent and adult health and HIV care management. Her dissertation focuses on investigate psychosocial relationships and transitional care for young adults living with HIV infection. Lambert's work is supported by a grant from the Interdisciplinary Sexual Health and HIV Research (INSHHR) group at the University of Rochester. She is a 2021 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Student Fellow for the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, an active member of the School of Nursing's INSHRR group and Rochester Black Nurses Association and a recent inductee to the Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society.

More about Faith

Hilary Marsfelder-Clark

Shelby Przybylek, RN, BSN, CCRN

Brian Smith, MSW

Erin Vernetti, MS, RN

Erin Vernetti is a doctoral student at the University of Rochester School of Nursing and a senior level III RN in F.F. Thomspon Hospital's Operating Room. She also works as a research assistant with Danielle Alcéna-Stiner, PhD, RN, an assistant professor at the School of Nursing, on community environmental and sexual health projects. For her doctoral work, Vernetti is interested in exploring how stigma and community affect healing for survivors of sexual assault. Prior to her nursing degree, her master's degree thesis involved looking at the Democratic Republic of Congo and how the war was fought on the bodies of the county's women and girls. Vernetti is a member of Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society, Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, and the Rochester Black Nurses Association.

Yu-Ching (Katie) Yang

Kuanlin Yeh

Kuanlin Yeh is an international student in the PhD program at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. Before pursuing an advanced degree in the U.S., she was a registered nurse for five years in hospitals and clinics in Taiwan. She earned her master's degree in nursing informatics at Georgia State University. After graduation, she worked as a medical-surgical nurse at Emory Hospital Midtown in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a research assistant for the Upside Moms study. Her research focuses on the impact of dietary components on postpartum adiposity. Yeh is currently a member of the Eastern Nurses Research Society and Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society.

Zhihong Zhang, MS, RN

Zhihong Zhang is a doctoral student at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. She is specifically interested in examining resilience in symptom trajectory in older adults with advanced cancer receiving cancer treatment. Zhihong is also an active member of the Oncology Nursing Society, Sigma Theta Tau, and Eastern Nursing Research Society.

JJ (John) Jackson

JJ Jackson is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and doctoral student at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. His research interests center around help-seeking behaviors of sexual minority men within the context of status neutral HIV prevention and care. His future research hopes to address the social, structural and systemic barriers that impact sexual health navigation for sexual minority men including ways to leverage asset-based interventions to improve their health outcomes and health equity.