VCU School of Nursing names Suzanne Ameringer the Florence E. Elliott Professor
Suzanne Ameringer, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, a professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing, has been named the Florence E. Elliott Professor.
The professorship is named after its benefactor, who served as a nursing arts instructor at the St. Philip School of Nursing from 1940 to 1943. St. Philip was a nursing school for African-American women at the Medical College of Virginia during racial segregation. Florence E. Elliott was an advocate for the nursing profession and believed in integration for students and faculty during her long career in teaching and administration. In the years before her death in 2004, she made numerous donations to the VCU School of Nursing, including a special $100,000 gift that was used to establish the professorship.
“Florence E. Elliott was a passionate, dynamic leader who had a strong influence on shaping the nursing profession,” Ameringer said. “It is an honor to be awarded this title in her name.”
Ameringer’s leadership and dedication to furthering nursing knowledge makes her the ideal faculty member to hold this professorship, said Jean Giddens, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, professor and dean of the VCU School of Nursing.
“I am pleased to be able to honor Dr. Ameringer for her exemplary work as a leading researcher and as a faculty member committed to building on our academic excellence,” Giddens said.
Ameringer joined the VCU School of Nursing faculty in 2007. In addition to teaching and leading the school’s research enterprise on an interim basis, she conducts research focused on improving symptom self-management in adolescents and young adults with sickle cell disease and cancer. Ameringer was part of a team of pediatric and adult oncology nurse researchers from around the country that developed the Computer Symptom Capture Tool (C-SCAT), a web-based application that helps adolescents and young adults who are fighting cancer communicate more effectively with their care providers about their symptoms.
The inaugural recipient of the Tina L. Bachas Oncology Nursing Research Award, she is a member of the Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses, Sigma Theta Tau International, the Oncology Nursing Society, and the Children’s Oncology Group. A fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, Ameringer has published in numerous industry journals and has presented at conferences nationally and internationally.
Categories Alumni and Friends, Faculty and Staff, Research