Nolan named new Associate Director for Community Outreach & Engagement
The UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center is pleased to announce that Timiya S. Nolan, Ph.D., APRN-CNP, ANP-BC, has been named Associate Director for Community Outreach & Engagement effective July 1, 2023. In this role, she will be responsible for overseeing the Office of Community Outreach & Engagement, which fosters transdisciplinary cancer research along with bi-directional communication and collaboration with communities statewide.
In addition to bringing her expertise in creating partnerships that support the development and testing of self-management interventions to the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, Nolan will also join the Division of Preventive Medicine in the UAB Heersink School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine as an Associate Professor.
Nolan is a native of Brewton, AL, and a three-time graduate of the UAB School of Nursing and former Instructor of Nursing. She completed postdoctoral training in cancer prevention and health disparities at The Ohio State University and has been on faculty at The Ohio State University School of Nursing since 2018. Nolan holds certifications as an adult nurse practitioner and teacher of nursing.
From an early age, Nolan knew that healthcare was her calling. She took every opportunity to advise family members about ways to promote their health, from advocating against smoking to ensuring that others sought regular healthcare. Her educational experiences made her keenly aware of the healthcare disparities in our state and rooted her interest in mitigating these disparities to improve the health and lives of people in medically underserved communities in Alabama like the one she grew up in. Through her interactions with the late Karen Meneses, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, renowned nurse scientist and beloved Professor and Associate Dean for Research in the UAB School of Nursing, Nolan discovered community-based participatory research as an avenue to create and disseminate new knowledge to support disparate populations in their pursuits of health.
“I am proud to return home to UAB and partner with Alabamians to create avenues to promote better health,” said Nolan. “Returning to UAB as the Associate Director for Community Outreach & Engagement at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center is really a full-circle moment. I am coming back home to the tremendous capacity of the Office of Community Outreach & Engagement with expertise in galvanizing individuals toward a common vision: ‘There is power in P.E.O.P.L.E. (Providing education and outreach to populations living with equity challenges).’”
Nolan’s leadership in academic-community-government partnerships has been nationally recognized. She was selected for prestigious awards such as the National Minority Quality Forum’s 2022 40 Under 40 Leader in Health Award and the Oncology Nursing Society’s 2022 Victoria Mock New Investigator Award. Nolan has also been featured by Johnson & Johnson as a nurse leading innovation.
“I can think of nobody better suited than Dr. Nolan to take on the role of Associate Director for Community Outreach & Engagement,” said Director Barry Sleckman, M.D., Ph.D. “Her innovative, community-based research program coupled with her strong ties to the underserved communities of our state position her well to make impactful changes in cancer care disparities in Alabama. We look forward to working with her in the coming years to achieve this important goal.”
The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center wishes to extend a special note of gratitude to Isabel Scarinci, Ph.D., MPH, for leading the community outreach and engagement mission on an interim basis for the past year, as well as to the members of the search committee chaired by Raegan Durant, M.D., MPH, for identifying such an outstanding individual to be our next Associate Director.