Postdoctoral Program

To learn more about an individual's experience and research, click on the postdoctoral fellow's name.  

Soojung Ahn, PhD, RN

Postdoctoral Scholar

Dr. Soojung Ahn is a postdoctoral scholar under the mentorship of Dr. Mulubrhan Mogos and Dr. Mariann Piano at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. Her research interests include an emphasis on cardiovascular disease prevention, subclinical biomarkers, and lifestyle modification. She is particularly interested in the population of family caregivers of patients with chronic illness. Utilizing cardiovascular subclinical markers (e.g., arterial stiffness and blood pressure variability), her research aims to investigate the role of psychological and behavioral factors, such as depression, caregiver stress, sleep deprivation, and physical inactivity, in caregivers' cardiovascular health. Dr. Ahn earned her doctoral degree from the University of Virginia School of Nursing where she conducted a dissertation study that focused on the associations among psychological distress, sleep quality, and 24-hour blood pressure variability in family caregivers. Expanding her dissertation study, Dr. Ahn plans to conduct a pilot study that examines temporal associations and clustering patterns of psychological symptoms, sleep quality, and levels of physical activity in relation to cardiovascular disease risk among family caregivers of older adults with multiple health conditions.

Christine Cleary Kimpel, PhD, RN

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Christine Cleary Kimpel is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Vanderbilt University. She attended Kent State University, earning her BSN and MA in philosophy, focusing on healthcare ethics. Several end-of-life patient experiences as a burn and palliative care nurse motivated her to complete a Ph.D. in Nursing Science at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. Dr. Kimpel?s research centers around patient and family autonomy and equity for marginalized populations. After completing her pre-doctoral fellowship as a VA Quality Scholar, her current work explores associations of resilience and childhood experiences with advance care planning among affordable housing residents to build tailored interventions and implementation strategies.

Nadia Markie Sneed, PhD, RN, APRN, FNP-BC

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Nadia Markie Sneed is a postdoctoral fellow under the primary mentorship of Dr. William Heerman, MD, MPH, in the Department of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Dr. Mariann Piano PhD, RN, FAAN, FAHA at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.

She completed her doctoral training at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) in the School of Nursing where she was awarded the Blazer Fellowship through the UAB Graduate School and the Graduate Teaching Fellowship through the UAB School of Nursing. Her dissertation focused on examining the associations between added sugar consumption and prediabetes risk in U.S. adults using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

As part of her post-doctoral training, Dr. Sneed aims to develop a program of research that focuses on the development and implementation of family-centered and community-based dietary lifestyle interventions for prediabetes management and multi-generational prevention of type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Sneed's postdoctoral fellowship is funded through the Vanderbilt Patient/ pRactice Outcomes Research in Effectiveness and Systems Science (PROgRESS) T32 Program supported by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (PI: Christianne Roumie) and through the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.