Underhill-Blazey Receives Provost's Furth Fund Award

Meghan Underhill-Blazey, PhD, APRN, FAAN, an assistant professor at the University of Rochester School of Nursing, was recently selected to receive the Valerie and Frank Furth Fund Award.

The Furth Fund, administered by the Office of the Provost, provides awards up to $12,500 to help foster the development of promising scientists in the natural and biological sciences. Tenure-track junior faculty appointed to the University’s School of Arts, Sciences and Engineering, the School of Medicine and Dentistry, and the School of Nursing, who have been hired within the past three years, are eligible for the award. Funds may be used to promote the research activities of the faculty member and may be used to support graduate students or postdocs.

“The application for this award is a highly competitive process, and Meghan’s proposal was noted to be exceptional,” said Kathy Rideout, EdD, PPCNP-BC, FNAP, dean of the UR School of Nursing. “This is great University recognition of the importance of the work Meghan is doing.”

A member of Cancer Control and Prevention and a nurse practitioner at the Wilmot Cancer Institute, Underhill-Blazey has dedicated her career to understanding the experiences of and improving care for individuals and families living with inherited cancer risk. Her program of research focuses on building and implementing clinical innovations that transform the focus of cancer genetics from an illness model to a wellness-focused model that directly responds to the needs of individuals and families. She has widely disseminated research findings both through publications and presentations and has served as the nurse scientist on multidisciplinary teams which have had national and international impact.

In addition to clinical practice, research, and mentorship, Underhill-Blazey has served in multiple capacities as an oncology nursing science leader both locally and nationally within the Oncology Nursing Society. Based on her research impact and leadership she was awarded the Oncology Nursing Society Victoria Mock New Investigator Award in 2018, and inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2021. Underhill-Blazey completed her bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in nursing at the University at Buffalo. Her postdoctoral training was completed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

She is the third UR Nursing researcher to receive the Furth Fund Award. Jinjiao Wang, PhD, RN, was honored in 2019, and Feng (Vankee) Lin, PhD, RN, received the award in 2016.