Ph.D. Mentors

Dr. Tatiana Davidson is a tenured professor of Nursing and Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina. She is the Endowed Chair of Innovation in Behavioral Health and director of the Center of Excellence in Behavioral Health Nursing in the College of Nursing. Her research has focused on the development, evaluation, and implementation of technology-enhanced resources and clinical programs to improve access and quality of care available to youth, adults, and families who develop mental health conditions secondary to traumatic events. To this end, Dr. Davidson has acted as principal investigator and co-investigator in numerous well-designed and federally, state, and foundation-funded (i.e., National Institutes of Health, Duke Endowment Foundation, Victims of Crime Program) studies focused on the development, evaluation, and implementation of technology-enhanced clinical programs and interventions for addressing health (e.g., diabetes) and mental health (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder) problems among trauma-affected children, teens, and adults.

Dr. Kelechi is a gerontological clinical nurse specialist, certified wound care nurse, and nurse scientist. Her research focuses on the development, evaluation and implementation of self-management interventions to improve wound healing outcomes in populations with chronic conditions and stress reduction interventions in older caregivers.

Kathleen Oare Lindell, Ph.D., RN, ATSF, FAAN is an associate professor and the Mary Swain Endowed Chair in Palliative Care Health in the College of Nursing in the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) with joint appointments in the College of Medicine and College of Health Professions. She is a graduate of the St. Francis General Hospital Professional School of Nursing (Diploma RN), and the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing (BSN, MSN - Pulmonary Specialty, and Ph.D.).

Dr. Lindell worked at the PENN Lung Center as a Pulmonary Clinical Nurse Specialist (PCNS) where she participated in development of evidence-based programs to advance the respiratory health of patients with lung disease ultimately impacting their ability to breathe. In 2000, she became the PCNS at the inaugural University of Pittsburgh Dorothy P. & Richard P. Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Disease at UPMC where she led the patient education and support group for patients and their caregivers focused on improving their quality of life. After obtaining her Ph.D., she became the executive director of the SUPPORT program, received NIH, foundation, and intramural funding, and continued her research focus toward promoting palliative care knowledge and preparedness to improve the quality of life for patients with advanced lung disease, specifically Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) and their family caregivers.

Dr. Shannon Phillips, PhD, RN, Alumnus CCRN, is an Associate Professor and teaches in the PhD program. She received her BSN from the University of North Florida and her PhD from the Medical University of South Carolina.

Dr. Phillips began her career as a nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). During her time in the PICU, she developed a passion for improving care for children with complex chronic conditions and their families. She pursued a PhD so that she could conduct research to better understand barriers and facilitators to access to care, determine resources needed by the population, and improve methods to deliver these resources. Since receiving her PhD, Dr. Phillips has developed a particular interest in improving access to care and services using technology-based approaches to self-management of symptoms in children, adolescents, and young adults with sickle cell disease. She is the past recipient of a KL2 Career Development Award from the South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute and the recipient of a National Institutes of Nursing Research K23 Career Development Award to develop these symptom self-management interventions. Dr. Phillips is also involved in research pertaining to access to care and implementation of guideline-based care for individuals with sickle cell disease across the lifespan. In addition to her research, Dr. Phillips is Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certified and has conducted multiple quality improvement projects in primary care practices across South Carolina. She teaches theory courses in the PhD program and has expertise in qualitative and mixed methods research, particularly as applied to conducting multi-level assessments of barriers and facilitators to care.

Keywords: symptom and self-management, sickle cell disease, care of children and families, access to care

Ken Ruggiero, PhD, is Professor and SmartState Endowed Chair of the Technology Applications Center for Healthful Lifestyles (TACHL), as well as Director of the Telehealth Resilience and Recovery Program. He received his BA from the State University of New York at Buffalo and MA and PhD from West Virginia University, and completed his internship and NIMH postdoc at MUSC. Dr. Ruggiero’s research centers on the development, testing, and implementation of technology-enhanced interventions. Most of his early research focused on brief, web-based self-help interventions. Over time, this work evolved into the use and evaluation of technology-based stepped care approaches for victims of disaster and serious injury. He is PI on an active NIH grant (through 2021) to conduct a randomized controlled trial of Bounce Back Now, a smartphone-based intervention for disaster survivors in partnership with the American Red Cross. He is also Co-PI on an active Duke Endowment grant (through 2020) to adapt and implement the Telehealth Resilience and Recovery Program in three partnering trauma centers in South Carolina.

Kheri Wandji is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). A psychiatric nurse and population health scientist, Dr. Wandji’s research focuses on developing, testing and implementing digital health innovations to expand access to substance use disorder (SUD) care in underserved rural communities.

He is the Principal Investigator of RISE-Rural (Recovery-Informed Support and Empowerment for Rural Communities), a proposed scalable digital peer support video library currently under NIH review, designed to reduce disparities in access to evidence-based treatment for opioid and stimulant use disorders in rural South Carolina and beyond.

His work integrates community-engaged methods, implementation science frameworks and culturally responsive approaches to ensure that digital tools are both effective and sustainable in real-world settings.

Dr. Wandji earned his PhD in Population Health from the University of South Carolina, his MSN from Seton Hall University and his MBA from Western Kentucky University. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University as part of the NIH/Fogarty-funded Global Health Emerging Scholars program, where he led an implementation science project to improve health system communication in rural Uganda. He also trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through the NIH/NIDA-funded SUD Ventures program in biomedical innovation and entrepreneurship.

His scholarship has been recognized through awards such as the SAMHSA Minority Fellowship, Jonas Nursing and Veterans Healthcare Scholarship and NIH/Fogarty Global Health Emerging Scholar award. He has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications on racial and gender disparities in SUD treatment, structural and socio-ecological barriers to care, global health system innovations and the impact of climate change on population mental health in Kampala, Uganda.