• Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care Services

    Staff Profiles

    Donna L. Berry, PhD, RN, AOCN®, FAAN

    Director
    Email: donna_berry@dfci.harvard.edu 

    Donna L. BerryDonna L. Berry, PhD, RN, AOCN®, FAAN, Director 

    Dr. Berry completed her undergraduate education at Baylor University and holds graduate degrees from the University of Texas at Houston and the University of Washington. Her commitment to improving care of the person with cancer has spanned over two decades, beginning with her work as an oncology staff nurse and continuing with her mentorship activities and current leadership in designing, implementing, evaluating, and teaching patient-centered oncology practices.

    Her scholarship has been presented locally, nationally, and internationally and published in nursing, medical, and interdisciplinary journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Berry is often asked to speak and contribute in international venues, notably Switzerland, Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan. Recently at the University of Washington, she mentored clinicians and students from several disciplines and of all levels. She held a clinical appointment as the first Nurse Researcher at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

    Dr. Berry's career holds many "firsts." At the University of Washington, she was the first nurse to hold adjunct faculty appointments in the Department of Urology and the Department of Medical Education and Bioinformatics. She has the longest affiliation with a national cancer cooperative group (Southwest Oncology Group) of any nurse scientist in the United States. Extending this role, she was the first nurse scientist to serve as committee co-chair on a National Cancer Institute Progress Review Group. Additionally, she led the first national research agenda for the Oncology Nursing Society from 2002-2008.

    Dr. Berry has pioneered in two important areas: patient-centered oncology care and nursing leadership within oncology research. To implement her patient-centered care paradigm, Dr. Berry formulated an interdisciplinary team and then led that team to successfully design and implement accessible, computerized tools to assess symptom experiences and quality of life variables. She led another large, multi-disciplinary team to develop, produce, and test the first and only Internet intervention based on personal factors to support treatment decision-making by men with prostate cancer. Recognized by nomination and election to Fellowship in the American Academy of Nursing, she has assumed increasing leadership and responsibility for transforming health care. As Director of Dana-Farber's Cantor Center, she will achieve these responsibilities in oncology nursing.


    Jennifer Allen, RN, MS, MPH, ScD

    Nurse Scientist
    Email: jennifer_allen@dfci.harvard.edu 

    Jennifer AllenJennifer Allen, RN, MS, MPH, ScD, Nurse Scientist 

    Dr. Allen received her Bachelor's degree in nursing and Master's degree in Community Health Nursing from Boston College. In addition, she has a Master's and Doctoral Degree in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She began her nursing career in community health in international and domestic settings. This work sparked her interest in the roles of social, economic and environmental forces on health.

    For the past 15 years, she has been an investigator in the Center for Community-Based Research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Her research has focused on the development and evaluation of community-based approaches to cancer prevention and control among medically underserved populations. She has conducted randomized trials of interventions designed to promote screening for breast and cervical cancers. In addition, she has developed computer-tailored interventions to promote informed decision-making for prostate cancer screening. Currently, she is studying interventions to promote uptake of the HPV vaccine among young women and parents of young girls.

    Dr. Allen has received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute, the Susan G. Komen Foundation and other foundations to conduct this work in churches, worksites, neighborhoods and other community settings. Dr. Allen is a member of the American Public Health Association, the Massachusetts Public Health Association, the American Nurses Association, and the Massachusetts Nurses' Association.

    Research Interests

    Design and evaluation of community-based interventions; cancer prevention and control in underserved communities; health disparities.

    Appointments & Awards
    • Assistant Professor (pending), Medical Oncology, Harvard Medical School
    • Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health

    Mary Cooley, PhD, APRN, BC

    Nurse Scientist
    Email: mary_cooley@dfci.harvard.edu 

    Mary CooleyMary Cooley, PhD, APRN, BC, Nurse Scientist 

    The focus of Dr. Cooley's work has been symptom management and quality of life in adults with cancer. She began doctoral study at University of Pennsylvania and was awarded an institutional pre-doctoral fellowship through the National Institutes for Health (NIH) and doctoral scholarships from the American Cancer Society and the Oncology Nursing Foundation. In her dissertation, Dr. Cooley described the changes in patterns of symptom distress in adults receiving treatment for lung cancer and examined the relationship of selected demographic and clinical characteristics to symptom distress over time. Results from this study found that symptom distress scores were moderate to high on entry into the study and that the change in pattern of symptom distress was not the same among treatment groups. Adults who received surgical treatment had less symptom distress at three months as compared with those who received combined treatment. Various demographic and clinical variables were weak and inconsistent predictors of symptom distress.

    She then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in psychosocial oncology at University of Pennsylvania sponsored by the NIH. She conducted a secondary analysis to examine symptom prevalence, distress, and change over time in adults receiving treatment for lung cancer. Results from this study found that fatigue and pain were the most distressing symptoms for each group and at each time. Significant differences in distressing symptoms among the treatment groups were noted. Many of the individual symptoms were associated with demographic and treatment group values but no consistent pattern emerged over time except for baseline symptom distress. Symptom distress at entry to the study was a strong predictor of nine distressing symptoms at three months and seven distressing symptoms at six months. Subsequently, she received funding through the American Cancer Society for a study examining the use of health status questionnaires as predictors of unscheduled health care visits in ambulatory oncology. Data analyses for this study are in the final stages. During this time, she also participated in the development of a state cancer control plan for Connecticut and as a result became interested in smoking cessation interventions.

    After completing the post-doctoral fellowship, Dr. Cooley joined a multidisciplinary research team in the Smoking Cessation Research Program. While at the Smoking Cessation Research Program, Dr. Cooley was selected to attend the 2002 Summer Institute for Randomized Clinical Trials Involving Behavioral Interventions sponsored by the NIH. Most recently, Dr. Cooley was chosen as the recipient of the Oncology Nursing Society New Investigator Award. This award is presented to an investigator who is within five years of finishing his or her doctoral program and has contributed to building a scientific basis for oncology nursing. Dr. Cooley started working as a research scientist in The Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care Services in December 2002 and continues to move forward her program of research in symptom management and quality of life in adults with cancer and is beginning a program of research in smoking cessation interventions.


    Jean Boucher, PhD, RN, APRN-BC

    Clinical Inquiry Specialist
    Email: jean_boucher@dfci.harvard.edu 

    Jean Boucher works part-time as a Clinical Inquiry Specialist at the Cantor Center facilitating evidence-based practice projects with Dana-Farber nurses for implementation in oncology practice for patients and their families. Jean has worked as an oncology nurse practitioner for over 15 years. She is currently practicing one day a week in gastrointestinal oncology and working as nursing faculty at UMASS Medical School/Graduate School of Nursing in Worcester, MA. Jean's clinical research includes symptom management and quality of life for gastrointestinal cancer patients, prostate cancer patients, and their partners, and in end-of-life care. Jean is an active member in Oncology Nursing Society, Sigma Theta Tau, and the Eastern Nursing Research Society.


    Kristin Roper, RN, MSN, OCN, PhD(c)

    Clinical Inquiry Specialist
    Email: kroper@lroc.harvard.edu 

    Kristin RoperKristin Roper, RN, MSN, OCN, PhD(c) 

    Kristin Roper works as a Clinical Inquiry Specialist (CIS) at the Cantor Center facilitating evidence-based practice projects with DFCI nurses. Prior to working as a CIS, Kristin worked in various positions including an inpatient oncology nurse, outpatient infusion nurse, and clinical research nurse in both medical and radiation oncology for ~25 years. Currently a PhD candidate in nursing healthcare policy at UMASS Boston, Kristin's clinical research includes health related quality of life in Hodgkin's lymphoma survivors, legislative and organizational policy initiatives relating to the HRQOL, patterns of continued employment, return to work, and work productivity of the colorectal cancer survivor. Kristin is an active member of the DFCI internal review board, Oncology Nursing Society, and the NCCN distress panel.


    Meghan Underhill, PhD, RN

    Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
    Clinical Inquiry Specialist
    Email: meghanl_underhill@dfci.harvard.edu 

    Meghan UnderhillMeghan Underhill, PhD, RN  

    Meghan Underhill is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow through the University of Massachusetts Boston and Dana Farber Cancer Institute U54 Partnership in Cancer and Health Disparities. She has a PhD in Nursing from the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. Her developing program of research focuses on the lived experience of persons and families at high risk for hereditary cancer and her dissertation research explored this experience in healthy women with hereditary breast cancer risk. Meghan will be working on developing this research to further understand and improve the process of experiencing hereditary cancer risk and making health related decisions within the context of this risk. Additionally, Meghan works within the Science and Practice Aligned within Nursing initiative as a Clinical Inquiry Specialist focused on improving patient outcomes through evidence based practice and research initiatives. Meghan is a member of the Oncology Nursing Society, the International Society of Nurses in Genetics, the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, the New York State Nurse Practitioner Association, and Sigma Theta Tau International, Gamma Kappa Chapter.


    Erica Sorrentino, MA

    Senior Clinical Research Coordinator
    Email: esorrentino@partners.org 

    Erica Sorrentino works as Senior Clinical Research Coordinator in the Cantor Center on studies that primarily develop and test socio- or biobehavioral supportive care interventions for persons at risk of, receiving treatment for, or surviving cancer and their families. Erica graduated from Brandeis University in 2006 with a BA in Psychology, and continued her education at Tufts University, where she obtained her MA in Child Development, concentrating in clinical developmental psychology. In May of 2011, she completed her premedical post baccalaureate in the Health Careers Program at Harvard Extension School. Prior to joining the Cantor Center, Erica served as Project Manager for the Neurodevelopmental Disorders Phenotyping Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, whose research focus is aimed at better understanding autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disorders.


    Maribel Melendez, MBA

    Clinical Research Coordinator
    Email: maribel_melendez@dfci.harvard.edu 

    Maribel MelendezMaribel Melendez, MBA; Clinical Research Coordinator 

    Maribel Melendez received a Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Management from the University of Phoenix and is a graduate of Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Science in Health Education. Before arriving at the Cantor Center, Ms. Melendez worked in the Center for Community-Based Research in Population Sciences at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as a Research Coordinator for the Step Up, Trim, the Open Doors to Health, the United for Health and the Parent research studies. Maribel is passionate about narrowing health and treatment disparities related to cancer in underserved populations. She was fortunate enough to receive the Employee Merit Award at Dana-Farber while in service at the Center for Community-Based Research, furthering her commitment to excellence and dedication.


    Erica Fox, MEd, RN

    Research Data Specialist
    Email: erica_fox@dfci.harvard.edu 

    Erica Fox recently received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where she was awarded the Hebrew SeniorLife scholarship in gerontological nursing, and elected to Sigma Theta Tau International. While at the University, Erica assisted Dr. Suzanne Leveille with research exploring the efficacy of an experimental device designed to improve medication adherence in elderly patients. Erica also holds a Master’s degree from Boston University in Instructional Media and Technology. Prior to joining the Cantor Center staff, Erica worked extensively in both for-profit and non-profit educational settings, as a project manager, curriculum designer and teacher. She has received numerous awards for her programs, including the Distinguished Community Service Award from Boston’s Horizons for Homeless Children.

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