Two leading researchers at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, Associate Professor’s Kristin Cleverley and Samantha Mayo, have been named as 2024 Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN).
The American Academy of Nursing selects fellows whose program of research and international impact align with their mission – which is to enhance health equity for vulnerable populations. For both Cleverley and Mayo, that same mission is a driving force behind their respective programs of research in youth mental health and care transitions, and hematological cancer survivorship.
“To be named a 2024 Fellow is an honour, and demonstrates the profound research expertise of nurses on the global stage. I am grateful not only for the recognition this brings me as a researcher, but also for the recognition this brings to the field of student and youth mental health research,” says Cleverley, who was also recently named the Rossy Chair in Campus Mental Health.
Kristin Cleverley is currently co-leading a $10 million longitudinal study, the largest in Canada to date, that follows the trajectory of youth with a serious mental illness with a goal of improving the currently low identification rate (5 per cent) of children at risk of developing psychosis spectrum disorder. In her focus on care transitions, she currently leads the Longitudinal Youth in Transition Study, one of the first prospective studies to inform the development of innovative transition interventions, to optimize outcomes for vulnerable youth.
A staunch advocate for research mentorship, Cleverley has also established and is leading the first student mental health research network in Canada called Inlight which is housed at the University of Toronto as well as the first international student mental health research network – the Global Network for Student and Youth Mental Health Research. Both initiatives focus on shared research discovery, and promoting high-quality, scalable innovations with an emphasis on the engagement of graduate student researchers.
Samantha Mayo is currently the RBC Financial Group Chair in Oncology Nursing, a joint position between Bloomberg Nursing and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, where she has co-established and is co-leading the Oncology Nursing Research Centre of Excellence, the first centre of its kind in Canada, which focuses on supporting nurse engagement in oncology research and scholarship.
“I am grateful to be recognized among such leading global nurse researchers. Not only does this Fellowship recognize the contributions of my own research, but also the critical role of oncology nursing research in advancing the health systems that support patients and families affected by cancer,” says Mayo.
Some of Mayo’s recent research has aimed to better understand the psycho-social and functional impacts of novel treatments for non-hodgkin lymphoma, a common type of blood cancer, and to evaluate and improve nurse-led supportive care interventions for different groups, including young adults and family caregivers.
Building on her recently published research that demonstrated the high frequency of cognitive symptoms experienced by people across cancer types, Mayo is currently working to address gaps in clinical symptom management of cancer-related cognitive impairment, through the development of evidence-based practice resources for nurses and protocols for screening, assessment and management at the point of care. Her commitment to patient-oriented research that informs survivorship care is a testament to her vision and inspirational leadership as a nurse scientist.
A ceremony celebrating Cleverley and Mayo’s induction was held by the American Academy of Nursing at their annual conference on November 2, 2024, in Washington D.C.