Scientific Director
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Nursing Research
Bethesda, MD
Ann Cashion, PhD, RN, FAAN, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Acute and Chronic Care in the College of Nursing at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN. She is serving as Senior Advisor to the Director, Dr. Pat Grady, at the National Institute of Nursing Research at NIH for one year (until August 2012) where she is focus on the Intramural Research Program and Policy.
Her funded research and clinical interests target genetic/genomic and environmental components associated with outcomes of organ transplantation. In her most recently funded study (R01 NR9270) she combines emerging technologies (microarrays) and behavioral questionnaires to investigate gene-environment interactions leading to obesity in recipients of kidney transplantations during the first year after transplant.Her past research projects have focused on early biomarkers of acute rejection in recipients of pancreas transplantations.
In addition to applying genomics to research, Dr. Cashion is committed to redesigning nursing curricula to incorporate the rapidly expanding genomic content. A strong genomic content base will allow nurses to be actively involved in practice and research in the emerging genomic era. She has mentored numerous doctoral students, two of whom have received NINR pre-doctoral funding (F31) allowing them to incorporate genomics into their programs of research.
Dr. Cashion serves as Communication Chair of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sponsored GAPPNet (Genetic Applications in Practice and Prevention Network). GAPPNet is a collaborative initiative involving partners from across the public health sector who are working together to realize the promise of genomics in healthcare and disease prevention.Other leadership experiences and honors include Past-President of the International Society of Nurses in Genetics, selection as one of 20 nurses into the 2005 Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow program, selection as one of 10 featured nurse scientists on the Johnson and Johnson Nurse Scientists’ video, and receiving the International Society of Nurses in Genetics (ISONG) Founder’s Award in recognition of outstanding genetics research and scholarship. She has presented and published numerous times on her research findings related to transplantation and genetics. Her article titled “Emerging Genetic Technologies” was featured in the NINR Monthly Summaries of Nursing Research for April 2004.
Dr. Cashion received her BSN from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her MNSc from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences campus, and her PhD from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center where she has been on faculty since 1998.