Associate Dean for Research

Tracie Harrison, PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN
Tracie Culp Harrison joined the College of Nursing in July 2024 as professor and associate dean for research and scholarship. In this role, she facilitates faculty and graduate student research and scholarship, providing leadership and enhancing the research environment of the college.

A leader in the field of gerontology, Harrison’s research interests include aging, disability, gender, and cultural beliefs on aging. She holds a PhD in Nursing with portfolios in Gerontology and Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, where she also completed post-doctoral work.

Harrison spent 18 years as faculty in the School of Nursing at UT-Austin, also serving seven years as director of the Center for Excellence in Aging Services and Long-term Care. Most recently, Harrison was professor and Alice An Loh Sun Endowed Chair in Geriatric Nursing at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Director

Linda Liu Hand, PhD
Dr. Hand coordinates the operations of the ONR and consults with faculty, UIHC nursing partners, and students who are developing research proposals, projects and manuscripts; leads and facilitates faculty, postdoc, and student initiatives to achieve goals for funding, scholarship and collaboration; and identifies resources needed to meet research objectives.

ONRS Budget Specialist

Dianne Rash
Dianne supports faculty and their research staff with start-up activities on newly awarded grants. She assists faculty with small grants in their day-to-day grant management, including hiring personnel, purchasing, and guidance in account management.

ONRS Grant Developer

Christopher Sang
Chris is responsible for assembling and submitting research grants and for providing support for research space and for programming activities of the ONRS.

Statistician

Yelena Perkhounkova, PhD
Dr. Perkhounkova works directly with faculty and postdoctoral fellows preparing grant proposals and conducting research. She helps to formulate research questions, choose an appropriate study design, and develop plans for analysis, data entry, and data management.

Data Manager

Maria Hein
Maria provides data management support, including developing, cleaning and managing data files; designing and working with existing databases; building datasets from a variety of sources; assisting with statistical analysis; and preparing tables, charts, and other graphics for publication.

Data Analytics Specialist

You Wang
You recently completed his Master's in Data Science. He has expertise in machine learning, big data, deep learning and natural language processing. He can also assist faculty with projects requiring programming in Python, SQL, and Pytroch.

Project Coordination Support

Jennie Embree
Jennie is available to assist PI's with project coordination duties such as IRB applications and modifications, research protocols and data collection plans, screening, recruitment, enrollment and informed consent processes, design, testing and implementation of participant tracking and data entry systems, hiring and training of team members, procurement of study-related equipment and materials, and progress reports.