2025 Symposium Speakers

The Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing is pleased to host the following speakers for the 2025 Ruth K. Palmer Research Symposium:

Keynote Speakers

Tené T. Lewis, PhD
Professor, Epidemiology
Rollins School of Public Health
Emory University

Dr. Lewis’ primary area of research is in the area of health psychology/psychosocial epidemiology, with an emphasis on cardiovascular health in women. She has a particular interest in understanding how psychological and social factors contribute to the disproportionately high rates of cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality observed in African-American women compared to women of other racial/ethnic groups. Dr. Lewis has two primary projects: one focused on psychosocial stress, resilience, and ambulatory blood pressure in healthy African-American women, and the other focused on psychosocial stress, inflammation and atherosclerosis in African-American women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Dr. Lewis’ scientific work has received honors from the American Psychosomatic Society and the Health Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association and has been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today, Essence Magazine, JET magazine and on National Public Radio (NPR).

Lenette M. Jones, PhD, RN, FAHA
McLelland Professor of Nursing
Associate Professor
University of Michigan School of Nursing

Dr. Jones is the inaugural McLelland Professor of Nursing and an Associate Professor of at the University of Michigan, and a member of the 2021 Cohort of the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Innovators and Leaders. She received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Case Western Reserve University. As a community-engaged researcher and cardiovascular health scientist, Dr. Jones is working to achieve health equity for minoritized patients. She is an expert in self-management strategies; her program of research is focused on uncovering the mechanisms – biological, psychological, social, and physical – of self-management interventions. Dr. Jones uses neuroimaging to explore brain activity associated with behaviors, such as diet, exercise, and medication-taking. She developed the WHISE intervention – a theoretically-based mobile application that provides education on self-management strategies and promotes health information sharing for Black women with hypertension.