VCU news

By Olivia Trani

Four faculty members from Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Health Professions and School of Nursing will receive one of the most prestigious honors in nursing this fall when they are inducted as fellows of the American Academy of Nursing.

The faculty members were among 250 nurse leaders selected to join the academy’s 2022 class of fellows. The inductees will be recognized for their significant contributions to health and health care at the academy’s annual Health Policy Conference, set for Oct. 27-29.

The VCU faculty to be inducted this year are: 

• Stephan Davis, DNP, the executive director of inclusive leadership education and assistant professor in the Department of Health Administration and assistant dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the College of Health Professions. Davis is a registered nurse, a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, fellow of the National Academies of Practice and a fellow of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.
• Jiale (Gary) Hu, Ph.D., an assistant professor and director of research and global outreach in the Department of Nurse Anesthesia at the College of Health Professions. Hu is a registered nurse.
• Terry Jones, Ph.D., an associate professor and lead of the Nursing Leadership and Organizational Science Concentration at the School of Nursing. Jones is a registered nurse.
• Ingrid Pretzer-Aboff, Ph.D., an associate professor and senior nurse researcher at the School of Nursing. Pretzer-Aboff is a registered nurse and a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.

Davis, Hu, Jones and Pretzer-Aboff were four of just six fellows selected from Virginia this year. No other entity in Virginia had more than one fellow selected for induction in 2022. 

“One of the most rewarding elements of being president of the American Academy of Nursing is presiding over the induction of our new fellows – amazingly talented nurse leaders whose work demonstrates significant contributions to advancing our vision of healthy lives for all people," said Kenneth R. White, Ph.D., president and fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. “As an alumnus of both VCU’s College of Health Professions and School of Nursing, and as a professor emeritus in VCU's Department of Health Administration, it is so special for me that four of these distinguished nursing leaders are from VCU.”

Davis has been a champion for advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in both practice and academic environments. During his time as a practicing health care executive, he guided multiple organizations to earning the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader designation from the Human Rights Campaign. He also served as an invited conferee for the 2020 Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Conference on Addressing Harmful Bias and Eliminating Discrimination in Health Professions Learning Environments, which culminated in a report of recommendations and action steps for educators and academic leaders to advance DEI in their institutions.   

Hu is an accomplished nursing researcher interested in knowledge translation in health care settings, particularly in anesthesia and pain management. His current research programs focus on improving pain assessments for patients who cannot self-report and leading changes in complex systems. 

Hu has also dedicated much of his career to advancing international collaboration in nurse anesthesia education and evidence dissemination. His major contributions include developing the first nurse anesthesia education program approved by the International Federation of Nurse Anesthetists in China, as well as creating and promoting knowledge tools to support evidence-based practice and shared decision-making.

Jones leads the Nursing Leadership and Organizational Science Concentration within the School of Nursing’s Department of Adult Health and Nursing Systems. In this role, she oversees a variety of courses that equip students for success today while they strive to build a better tomorrow.

Additionally, Jones is involved in research that focuses on improving the nursing work environment and the quality and safety of nursing care across the health care continuum. Her work also analyzes factors that impact leadership development for health care disciplines, such as managerial coaching relationships, graduate education and service-based continuing education. She received the President’s Award for Outstanding Service from the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nursing in 2021 and the Billye Brown Award for Excellence in Leadership in 2016.

Pretzer-Aboff has worked with people with Parkinson’s disease and their family members in acute care, community and research settings for more than 30 years. Her research focuses on developing interventions that optimize function and improve the daily life and independence of people with this disorder. Her contributions to this field include establishing efficacy-based, function-focused community care programs and co-founding the first nurse-managed Parkinson’s telehealth clinic in the United States. Most recently she continues her quest to improve lives of people with Parkinson’s by developing and testing a novel medical device that reduces the motor symptoms of the disease by delivering stimulation to the nervous system. Pretzer-Aboff is an affiliate scholar of the VCU Langston Center for Innovation in Quality & Safety. 

Davis, Hu, Jones, and Pretzer-Aboff will join several faculty members at the VCU School of Nursing and College of Health Professions who have already been recognized as AAN fellows.