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Awards Information
The Awards Committee of the APOS Board shall select recipients of APOS awards. The APOS Board of Directors will make nominations for all awards in the event no one is nominated from APOS membership.
Barbara Given has a distinguished research career focusing on the relationship between the formal health care system and the informal care system of patients and their families who must implement care for chronic disease and cancer. Her research was funded by NIH for over 30 years; she received her first R01 grant from NIH in 1986. She has received funding and support through the years from: National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Mental Health, National Institute for Nursing Research, National Institute on Aging, Walther Cancer Institute, Michigan Department of Community Health, and the American Cancer Society.
One of Dr. Given’s early research impacts is the Caregiver Burden Instrument that enables the evaluation of the burden that caring for a loved one has on an individual so that steps can be taken to improve their quality of life and the care they are providing. This research rose out of the recognition that there was a reduction in lengths of stays in hospitals and that the treatment in outpatient ambulatory care settings shifted ongoing and supportive cancer care responsibilities to patients and their families. The reaction of family members to providing the care needed to be better described and understood. The Caregiver Burden instrument remains in use both in research and among agencies documenting caregiver involvement in assisting their patients. It has been translated into many languages including: Dutch, German, Japanese, Chinese, Tai, Spanish, and Hebrew.
Dr. Given’s areas of investigation in cancer include: interventions, symptom management (RCT’s), the role of family caregivers, and adherence with oral cancer medication. Her research has employed technology (automated phone calls) as well as nurses to help patients and their family members to manage their symptoms of the disease and treatment. Her research team developed the Symptom Management Toolkit (Toolkit), an evidence based guide of self-care strategies to assist patients to manage their cancer and cancer treatment symptoms side effects. The Toolkit is organized according to ‘frequently asked questions’. Research found that patients using the Toolkit were able to manage their symptoms and thus able to continue their treatment and experience a better quality of life. It has been used by other researchers in their trials. Anthem has adapted it to a smartphone app for use in their Community Cancer Outreach and their Cancer Survivorship programs.
Dr. Given believes in giving back to the science and as such she has mentored many doctoral students and junior faculty. She has disseminated her work in over 310 journal articles, two books, and 66 book chapters.
Dr. Given is a reviewer for numerous professional journals. She served on the Editorial Boards for Cancer Nursing, European Journal of Cancer Nursing, Research in Nursing and Health, and Western Journal of Nursing.
She regularly served as a grant reviewer; serving on grant review panels for: National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, NINR, Department of Defense, National Institute of Aging, and the American Cancer Society.
Dr. Given is one of the charter members of the Midwest Nursing Research Society, and the Oncology Nursing Society. She was also one of the founders of the Behavioral Cooperative Oncology Group (BCOG) funded by the Walther Cancer Foundation.
Dr. Given has received many honors over her career including: Friends of the National Institute for Nursing Research Pathfinder Distinguished Researcher Award (2001), Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Distinguished Service Award (2006), Sparrow Nurses Lifetime Achievement Award (2013), Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science (CANS) Outstanding Nurse Scientist Award (2016), American Psychosocial Oncology Society Fellow (2017), Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research (FNINR) Ada Sue Hinshaw Award (2017), and most recently the 2019 American Cancer Society Trish Greene Quality of Life Award and the 2019 MNRS Lifetime Achievement Award.
Dr. Given is working with the AARP at the national level to ensure that family members are included in hospital discharge instructions as part of the CARE Act currently enacted in 43 states and territories.
Dr. Given serves on the Sparrow Hospital Governing Board where she just ended her service as Chair. Prior to serving on the Sparrow Hospital Governing Board she was the Chair of the Sparrow Health System Board.
She is currently the Interim Associate Dean for Research and the PhD Program in the College of Nursing, and a University Distinguished Professor.
Past Award Recipients
Dr. Joseph Greer is the Program Director of the Center for Psychiatric Oncology & Behavioral Sciences and the Associate Director of the Cancer Outcomes Research Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. He is also an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Greer’s research focuses on the development and testing of supportive care interventions for patients with cancer. As the principal investigator and collaborator on numerous grant-funded projects, he is studying the application of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to treat anxiety in patients with advanced cancer; nurse-delivered behavioral interventions to improve breathlessness in patients with lung cancer; the use of mobile technology to promote symptom management and adherence to oral chemotherapy medications; and the benefits of early palliative care integrated with standard oncology care. Dr. Greer has published over 85 scholarly papers, reviews, chapters, and commentaries related to this work. He has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and philanthropic donations. Dr. Greer’s program of research is greatly informed by his clinical practice at the MGH Cancer Center where he provides CBT for patients and their families.
Dr. Regina Melchor is a bilingual, licensed, fellowship-trained clinical psychologist who actively incorporates the continuity of care perspective by providing outpatient and in-patient consultation/liaison evaluations with evidence-based psychotherapeutic encounters throughout the cancer trajectory. Aside from integrating translational research into her clinical practice, she also provides psychoeducation for patients about their specific cancer while addressing their emotional/psychiatric needs. In her current position at Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center in Miami, she works in very close collaboration with oncologists, radiologists, surgeons, the entire health care team, as well as the patient’s family.
Dr. Melchor earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Miami, her graduate degrees at Albizu University and she completed a two-year Clinical Fellowship in adult and pediatric Psycho-Oncology and Consultation/Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center/Weill Cornell Medical School. As a twenty-five year academic, she has taught courses in both medical and psychology schools in the US and abroad, presenting in-service trainings, Tumor Boards and Grand Rounds on topics such as pediatric and adult palliative care. She has chaired accreditation committees, served on the APOS 2012 steering committee, and helped shape health psychology and psycho-oncology programs/units, and practicum sites in the US and Puerto Rico. In past leadership roles in academia, she has served as department director and has contributed to program design, development and evaluation of PhD human services, PsyD clinical and health psychology, and family medicine resident programs in a supervisory role. In hospital and hospice settings, she has served on bioethics, quality assurance committees, and on several Disease Management Teams for adult and pediatric psycho-oncology services.
Dr. Melchor is past President of the Medical Psychology Division of the Florida Psychological Association (FPA), and past President/Continuing Education Chair for the North Central Florida Chapter of FPA. She has also served on the professional advisory board at the Cancer Support Community of Greater Miami.
Dr. Melchor believes her clinical role with patients to be the most important. Throughout the years, she has focused on a developmental psycho-oncology model of care. Like the pediatric approach, it allows therapeutic family sessions especially at the end of life to be meaningful encounters, which often transcend individual interventions. In her role as a clinician, she has provided guidance to patients and families leading to policy changes. She has provided innovative, integrative and cohesive supportive care services, where she has gathered health care teams, patients and families to discuss difficult and often taboo topics. As part of the Cancer Committee at the Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center, she is involved in conducting regular needs assessments in the immediate multicultural communities to help address barriers, disparities and cancer program goals. In so doing, she is also actively involved in the quality improvement initiative implementing standards in the areas of survivorship and distress pursuant to the Commission on Cancer and CoC Special Studies.
Past Award Recipients
Dr. Jacobs is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a Clinical Psychologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center. She is the Director of Caregiver Research in the MGH Cancer Outcomes Research & Education program. Dr. Jacobs’s work focuses on improving the emotional, physical, and treatment-related outcomes of patients with cancer and the individuals who care for them through novel therapeutic approaches that are accessible and scalable.
Dr. Jacobs’s research program encompasses both patient-centered research focused on adherence to treatment and symptom management, as well as caregiver-centered research focused on anxiety and coping. Dr. Jacobs is currently funded by the National Cancer Institute to develop and test a brief, virtual, group-based intervention to improve side effect management, reduce distress, and enhance adherence to adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients after breast cancer. With her oncology collaborators, and funding from the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Conquer Cancer Foundation, she developed and is investigating a brief, virtual, evidence-based intervention to reduce anxiety for individuals caring for patients with malignant gliomas. Her emerging work is translating an in-person coping skills intervention to a gamified app-based intervention for individuals caring for patients during a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. As a clinician-scientist, Dr. Jacobs actively engages with collaborators across disciplines, as well as patients and family stakeholders, to optimize the human-centeredness and impact of this work.
Dr. Teresa Deshields is a licensed clinical psychologist, Director of Supportive Oncology at Rush University Cancer Center, and a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Rush University School of Medicine in Chicago. She is a Fellow of the American Psychosocial Oncology Society and its current Past-President. Her clinical practice is devoted to treating cancer patients and survivors and their family members, throughout the cancer continuum – diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, end of life,
and grief. Her research is focused on issues related to symptom burden and quality of life in cancer patients and survivors. She has trained future psychologists at the practicum, internship, and fellowship level. She has also participated in the education of other health professionals, including future physicians and nurses, in addition to social workers and chaplains.
Past Award Recipients
Dr. Jesse Fann is Medical Director of Psychiatry and Psychology and Director of the Integrated Psychosocial Oncology Program at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA). He is an Affiliate Investigator in Clinical Research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Dr. Fann is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences’ Division of Population Health and Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Rehabilitation Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Washington. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, his MD from Northwestern University, and his MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Washington.
Dr. Fann’s research has focused on psychiatric epidemiology and development of cost-effective strategies to identify and manage behavioral and psychiatric issues in people with cancer and other medical conditions. Over the past decade, he has dedicated his efforts on researching, implementing, and disseminating integrated psychosocial programs in diverse oncology settings. His research has been funded by NIH, PCORI, CDC, American Cancer Society and Department of Education.
Past Award Recipients:
