Office of Nursing Research
Research Collaborations
Goldfarb’s proximity to several of the nation’s leading academic medical centers fosters a robust environment for interdisciplinary inquiry. The College maintains active research partnerships with WashU, including collaborations with the Siteman Cancer Center, the McDonnell Genome Institute, the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. These partnerships facilitate access to advanced methodological expertise, translational research resources, and cross-disciplinary perspectives that strengthen the scientific rigor of our work.
In addition, our affiliation with WashU Medicine enables nurse anesthesia students to engage in experiential learning and clinical research within the operating rooms of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Collectively, these relationships support Goldfarb’s comprehensive research agenda and advance our capacity to develop multifaceted, evidence-based solutions to complex challenges in contemporary nursing practice.
Our Faculty Researchers
Meet our faculty researchers and learn about their areas of focus and recent accomplishments. Students who are interested in these areas of research can apply to work alongside faculty mentors through the Research Assistant program.
Sarah Farabi, PhD, RN |
| Assistant Professor Dr. Sarah Farabi's areas of expertise include measurement of sleep and metabolic disease. Her research focus has been on understanding the impact of sleep disruption on metabolic control in young adults with type 1 diabetes, with a particular interest in understanding the detrimental effects of sleep disruption during pregnancy. Currently, she involves the study of how treatment of sleep apnea during pregnancy may help to improve metabolic function in women. |
Heidi Holtz, PhD, RN |
Dr. Holtz completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. As a fellow, Dr. Holtz collaborated with and was mentored by experts in the field of nursing and bioethics researching moral resilience and moral distress in healthcare. Dr. Holtz’s observations of nurses’ adversity, along with her own experiences as a nurse led to her aspirations to support nurses in building resiliency and fostering a safe environment to practice. Dr. Holtz’s current research is focused on providing interventions to support nurses' healing and overall well-being following moral injury and trauma experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her future goals include supporting nurses and healthcare clinicians and empowering them to be able to maintain their professional identity, protect themselves and their well-being, and prevent the frequency of burnout. Dr. Holtz currently is a KL2 Career Development Award Scholar with the Washington University Institute of Clinical Translational Sciences (ICTS). |
JoAnn Jabbari, PhD, RN |
| JoAnn is a recent graduate of the Washington University and Barnes-Jewish College Goldfarb School of Nursing PhD in Nursing Science Program. The focus of her research centers around loneliness and psychological distress and its impact on health. She is a Jonas Scholar. Launched in 2008, the Jonas Scholars program is the signature initiative of Jonas Nursing, whose mission is to enhance the nursing profession by developing nurse leaders who will address the nursing shortage by educating the future nursing workforce and by investing in the health and well-being of underserved communities. |
Masako Mayahara, PhD, RN, FAAN, CHPN, FPCN |
Masako Mayahara, PhD, RN, FAAN, CHPN, FPCN, is an associate professor of medicine at WashU Medicine in the Division of Palliative Medicine. Dr. Mayahara is a clinical expert in pain management within hospice and palliative care, and a leading nursing scientist in home-based palliative care. Her research focuses on improving pain management for patients with serious illness and their families, particularly in home hospice settings. Building on her clinical expertise, she led the development of e-PainSupport, an NIH-funded intervention designed to enhance pain management for home hospice patients and their family caregivers. She also serves as co-investigator on multiple NIH-funded studies that address diagnostic overshadowing and ableism in health care, and evaluate online support groups for family caregivers of persons with dementia and hospice patients. Her contributions have been nationally recognized. She was named a Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association Research Scholar and received the Outstanding Contribution to Palliative Medicine Award from the Coleman Foundation. She is immediate past president of HPNA, serves on the Hospice and Palliative Nurses foundation board, and is a fellow of Palliative Care Nursing and the American Academy of Nursing.
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Tamara Otey, PhD, RN |
| Assistant Professor Tamara Otey, PhD, RN is passionate about addressing health disparities globally. She performs community-based participatory research in Nigeria and research in St. Louis. Dr. Otey also serves in an academic partnership with a local community hospital as a research and evidence-based practice mentor for their nurses. |
Dominic Reeds, MD |
Dr. Dominic Reeds, Professor of Medicine; Associate Dean of Research, Goldfarb School of Nursing; Director, Barnes Jewish Hospital Nutrition Support Service, Geriatrics and Nutritional Science, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO. Dr. Reeds is a dedicated leader in clinical research and education at Washington University School of Medicine. He serves as Medical Director of the Clinical Research Unit, co-Director of the Master of Science in Clinical Investigation Program, Associate Director of the Mentored Training Program in Clinical Investigation and Director of the Washington University KL2 program. He has a focus on assisting early-stage investigators through his roles as Director of the Pilot and Feasibility Programs for the Nutrition and Obesity Research Core and the Center for Diabetes Translation Research and Director of the Longer Life Center at Washington University. He has mentored more than 20 early-stage investigators and is a regular member of several NIH study sections. |
Contact Us
Please submit your inquiry using this form to learn more about faculty research at Barnes-Jewish College Goldfarb School of Nursing or to explore potential collaboration opportunities,