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Janice Phillips, RN, PhD, FAAN

Janice Phillips is a program director at the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). The Bethesda, Md., institute on the grounds of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides funding for investigators to conduct clinical and basic research for the care of individuals and families. NINR research focuses on health disparities and on the special needs of at-risk and underserved populations.

Janice's responsibilities include providing technical support for investigators who are submitting applications for research grants, representing NINR in collaborations with other institutes and centers at NIH, and defining gaps in research within specific areas of inquiry.

Her academic career began at North Park College in Chicago where she received a BSN in nursing. She later secured a master's degree in community health nursing from St. Xavier College in Chicago. But she didn't stop there. Janice went on to receive a Ph.D. in nursing in 1993 from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she completed her dissertation based on her research on breast-cancer screening among African-American women of differing employment status.

Janice wasn't always buried in research. She spent the first 17 years after receiving her degree as a nurse in the adult emergency room at the University of Chicago Medical Center as a nurse/manager.

"While the work is hard and demanding at times, the rewards are unlimited," Phillips said of her nursing career.

Janice's interest in research led her to different colleges and universities where she taught various nursing courses in community health and oncology nursing. While teaching at the Maryland University School of Nursing in 1995, she became the first African-American - as well as one of the youngest individuals ever - to receive the prestigious American Cancer Society Professorship in Oncology Nursing. She continues to be an active volunteer with the American Cancer Society.

Her work in the field of breast cancer has taken Janice to many parts of the world. She recently traveled to South America where she conducted breast cancer screening research and also provided education to disadvantaged people about the risks of undetected breast cancer.

Janice is one of the nurses featured in the advertising campaign for Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow. She is a member of the National Black Nurses' Association, Maryland Nurses Association (American Nurses Association), American Academy of Nursing, Oncology Nursing Society, and the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.