Who We Are

Columbia University School of Nursing

Jingjing Shang, PhD, RN, OCN, FAAN

Jingjing Shang is a professor of nursing at the Columbia University School of Nursing. Her research focuses on infection prevention and control in various health care settings (including home health care), cancer patient outcomes, and nursing workforce. As the principal investigator, she oversees all aspects of this study, in collaboration with Margaret McDonald at VNSNY and Jinjiao Wang at URMC, and leads the Columbia Nursing team.

Maureen George, PhD, RN, AE-C, FAAN

Maureen George is a professor of nursing at the Columbia University School of Nursing. She has extensive experience in qualitative research. For this study, she will guide the data collection and the dyadic interview analysis of home health patients or informal caregivers and home health providers.

Ashley Chastain, DrPH, MPH

Ashley Chastain is a senior project director at Columbia University School of Nursing. She has expertise in mixed methods research and analyzing patient/caregiver-provider communication. As a co-investigator, she will be involved with all aims of the study, but primarily Aims 2 and 3.

Haomiao Jia, PhD, MS

Haomiao Jia is a professor of biostatistics at the Columbia University School of Nursing. He specializes in temporal-spatial analyses and hierarchical models, and worked with Shang on a pilot study of infection-related disparities in home health care using American Community Survey data. As the study’s biostatistician, Jia will guide the analysis of Aim 1.

Jianfang Liu, PhD, MPA, MA

Jianfang Liu is an assistant professor of quantitative research at the Columbia University School of Nursing. She has solid knowledge of quantitative methodology and strong analytic skills. As this study’s methodologist, Liu will guide the development of the model to identify patients with high risk of infection and survey data analysis.

Uduwanage Gayani Perera, PhD, MSc

Gayani Perera is a data manager at the Columbia University School of Nursing. She has expertise in analyzing survey, CMS data and other national datasets, and serves as the data manager on the study.

Bridget Morse-Karzen, MPH

Bridget Morse-Karzen recently graduated from the Master in Public Health program at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She has experience with qualitative interview data collection and analysis, and serves as the project coordinator for this study.

Leanne Hallenbeck, MSN

Leanne Hallenbeck is a PhD in Nursing student at the Columbia University School of Nursing. She serves as a graduate research assistant on this study.

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Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY)

Margaret McDonald, MSW

Margaret McDonald is the associate director of the VNSNY Center for Home Care Policy & Research. She has 20 years of experience in community-based settings, overseeing interventions, primary data collection, and secondary data analysis activities. As a site PI, McDonald will be involved in all aspects of the study, and will lead the collection of survey and qualitative data and pilot intervention at the VNSNY site.

David Russell, PhD, MS

David Russell is a research scientist at VNSNY and assistant professor of sociology at Appalachian State University. He has experience conducting multi-method studies, including both survey design/implementation and qualitative interviewing/analysis. As a co-investigator at the VNSNY site, he will guide the development of the survey.

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University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC)

Jinjiao Wang, PhD, MPhil, RN

Jinjiao Wang is an assistant professor at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. She has extensive experience researching elderly patients in the home care setting using mixed methods. As a site PI, Wang will be involved in all aspects of the study, and will lead the collection of survey and qualitative data at the URMC site.

Thomas Caprio, MD, MPH, MS

Thomas Caprio is professor of Medicine/Geriatrics, Psychiatry, Dentistry, Clinical Nursing, and Public Health Sciences at URMC and medical director of University of Rochester Medicine Home Care. He is a seasoned geriatrician with extensive experience in health services research, particularly focusing on elderly patients living in the community. As a co-investigator, he will work with Wang to ensure successful participant recruitment and data collection at the URMC site.

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Expert Consultants

Sarah Szanton, PhD, RN, FAAN

Sarah Szanton is the dean and the Patricia M. Davidson Professor for Health Equity and Social Justice at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She has substantial expertise in health disparities in older adults, particularly those living in the community. 

Mary McGoldrick, MS, RN, CRNI, FAAN

Mary McGoldrick is the founder of and a home care and hospice consultant for Home Health Systems, Inc. She has been in the field of quality and infection prevention for over 35 years. McGoldrick is a thought leader in the field of infection prevention and control in home health care.