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American Academy of Nursing Fellowship

The National Academy of Medicine’s NAM Perspectives health periodical provides a venue for leading health, medical, science, and policy experts to reflect on issues and opportunities important to the advancement of our mission.

About the Fellowship

The overall purpose of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) Fellowship is to provide talented, early-career health science scholars in nursing with the opportunity to experience and participate in evidence-based healthcare or public health studies that improve the care and access to care of patients in domestic and global health care systems. This program is supported with funding from the AAN. Current Fellows of the AAN are eligible for the program. The AAN Fellowship is part of the NAM Fellowships for Health Science Scholars program.

Fellows

Current Fellow

2024-2026 AAN Fellow

Dr. Chicas is a Latina nurse, climate scientist, and advocate for workers’ rights, who has dedicated her career to advancing health equity and labor policies with/for Latino farmworker communities. Her leadership, teaching, prolific writing, and research have helped to cultivate national awareness of climate-health threats. Dr. Chicas currently serves as an Assistant Professor at Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. In this role, she is leading the field-based testing of a wearable biopatch for outdoor workers to gather physiological data, such as skin temperature, respiratory rate, and heart rate, which will eventually help AI predict when a person is at risk for heat-related illnesses.

Dr. Chicas conducted the first field-based intervention study of methods to reduce core body temperature using real-time biomonitoring among farmworkers in the United States. As the daughter of immigrant farmworkers and someone who grew up in an outdoor working community, Dr. Chicas’ research is informed by lived experience. Her work is continually informed by insights from farmworker communities as well; likewise, she seeks to continually share research findings and solutions with communities. Dr. Chicas has disseminated her findings through various publications, research abstracts and proceedings, invited presentations, and media features, including José Díaz-Balart Reports (MSNBC), the Washington Post, and NPR. In addition, she has contributed to policy-focused collaborations with the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environment and the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health.

Dr. Chicas earned an ASN from Georgia Perimeter College, a BSN from Emory University, and a PhD from Emory University Laney Graduate School. She completed her postdoctoral training in the Renal Division of the School of Medicine at Emory University, which positioned her to advance her pioneering body of work on acute kidney injury secondary to extreme heat exposure.

Previous Fellows

2022-2024 AAN Fellow

Dr. Joseph is an early-career Afro-Latina nurse scientist, educator, and philanthropist who was born and raised in Venezuela, South America. As an international expert in chemosensation and metabolic diseases, she bridges the intersections of nursing, science, nutrition, public health, policy, and health disparities. She is a 2019 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Lasker Scholar and Distinguished Scholar. She is Chief of the Section of Sensory Science and Metabolism in the Division of Intramural Clinical and Biological Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism with a dual appointment at the National Institute of Nursing Research.

Dr. Joseph leads a multidimensional translational research program combining research and clinical practice focused on chemosensation (taste and smell), obesity, and substance abuse. Her interdisciplinary laboratory team conducts research focused on understanding neurological and molecular mechanisms underlying chemosensation and motivational pathways of eating behaviors and how they might differ among individuals with obesity, alcohol, and substance use disorders. Dr. Joseph is a leader of national and global nonprofit organizations dedicated to decreasing health disparities and increasing minority health promotion and access. When individuals reported taste and smell loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Joseph and her team began investigating the effects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on the chemical senses.

Dr. Joseph received an Associate Degree in Applied Sciences in Nursing at Hostos Community College, a BSN from the College of New Rochelle, and an MS with a specialty as a Family Nurse Practitioner from Pace University. She completed a PhD in nursing with a focus in genomics at the University of Pennsylvania and conducted her PhD work at the Monell Chemical Senses Center. She then completed a Clinical and Translational Postdoctoral Fellowship focused on genomics, nutrition, and gastrointestinal diseases at the NINR, which was supported by the Office of Workforce Diversity. Dr. Joseph is a certified nurse practitioner with clinical privileges at the NIH Clinical Center and outside NIH.

Description

The AAN Fellowship is awarded for a two-year period. During this time, the fellow is expected to continue to work at their primary academic and research posts, while being assigned to a particular board at the National Academies. The boards are:

Children, Youth, and Families,
Food and Nutrition,
Global Health,
Health Care Services,
Health Sciences Policy, and
Population Health and Public Health Practice.

The fellowship requires a 10- to 20-percent commitment of time for two years, and includes attendance at a one-week orientation session, the NAM Annual Meeting and the meetings of the fellow’s designated board. Domestic travel expenses are covered for participation in approved fellowship activities. Additionally, the fellow will participate actively in the work of an appropriate study committee or roundtable, including contributing to its reports or other products. Studies that would enable the potential for the fellow to contribute to the value of integrating medicine and public health will be identified.

This experience will introduce the AAN Fellow to a variety of experts and perspectives, including legislators, government officials, industry leaders, executives of voluntary health organizations, scientists, and other health professionals. In addition, each fellow will be assigned to an NAM member who will serve as a senior mentor during the two years of the fellowship.

A flexible research grant of $25,000 will be awarded to each AAN Fellow, which will be administered through the appropriate department in the fellow’s home institution to advance the fellow’s professional and academic career. This grant is not intended for use as a salary offset for the fellow, and no indirect costs are allowed.

Program Information

Eligibility & Selection Process

Eligibility

Nominees for the AAN Fellowship must:

Be nominated by a member of the NAM or the AAN Board of Directors
Hold a doctoral degree
Be four-to-ten years out from completion of post-graduate work
Be a Fellow of the AAN
Be able to dedicate 10 to 20 percent of time to the fellowship for two years
Have endorsement by the department chair, institute director, or equivalent
Hold U.S. citizen or permanent resident status at the time of the nomination

Selection Criteria

Nominees will be evaluated by an NAM-appointed committee based on their professional qualifications, scholarship, and quality of professional accomplishments as evidenced through publications and research grants, and relevance of current field of expertise to the work of the NAM.

Nomination Packet

A complete nomination packet must be submitted electronically through the online nomination system at https://namfellows.secure-platform.com/submission and will include the following documents:

A nomination letter from a member of the NAM or the AAN Board of Directors
Three (3) letters of reference
A supporting letter from the candidate’s department chair, institute director, or equivalent
An up-to-date curriculum vitae
A brief one-page bio
A one-page personal statement that describes the candidate’s reasons for wanting to be a fellow for this particular program at this phase of their career

Timeline

Fellowships will be awarded in odd years.

March 2026

Call for nominations opens

June 2026

Nomination packets are due at 3:00pm ET

July 2026

Awardee is notified

September 2026

Fellow orientation week at the NAM is held

October 2026

Fellow is introduced to the Membership at the NAM Annual Meeting

Program Administration

Inquiries about the AAN Fellowship should be directed to:

Yumi Phillips
Senior Program Officer

Health Policy Fellowships and Leadership Programs
National Academy of Medicine
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Phone: (202) 334-1506

Email: [email protected]

The American Academy of Nursing Fellowship was established in 2022 with funding from the American Academy of Nursing.