Office for Community Partnerships

UM Nursing Practice Network

Faculty Practice Plan

Faculty Practice Plan Participants

Nurse Managed Centers

School-based Health Centers

Other Faculty Practices

Clinical Practice & Partnerships

Faculty Practice Plan Participants

Lori Bennett, FNP, RN, is a family nurse practitioner. Her practice began at the Nurse Managed Centers in 1977. Her interest in providing community based health care led to the development of a weekly clinic at Ozone House, a community agency that provides help for teens in crisis and their families. Subsequently working with nursing faculty and community partners she obtained grant funding and in 2001 started a clinic in Safe House Center safehousecenter.org, serving women and children in Washtenaw County. Ms. Bennett now serves at Director of Health Services at SAFE House and coordinates a variety of health care programs that have been developed there.

She regularly lectures about the health care effects of domestic violence on women and children, and particularly the role of health providers in identifying survivors of domestic violence. Her other interests include homeopathic medicine, smoking cessation and she is also a SANE nurse.

Cindy Darling-Fisher, PhD, APRN, BC
is a Family Nurse Practitioner with clinical experience in pediatric, internal medicine, and family practice settings. Her current practice is at the East Middle School Wellness Center, one of the School of Nursing School-based clinics. In this practice, she sees middle school-aged children (11-13) for their health promotion needs and management of common acute and chronic conditions one half-day per week. Dr. Darling-Fisher co-coordinates the Family Nurse Practitioner program at the UM School of Nursing, teaches in that program, and has supervised numerous masters students' scholarly projects. Several of these have come from the School-based Clinics and the Nurse Managed Centers. Dr. Darling-Fisher's research focus includes examining issues related to working families, in particular, the relationship between maternal employment and paternal involvement in child care, as well as, day-care issues. She is also interested in child and adult developmental concerns and their impact on health and family functioning.

Megan Eagle, MSN, RN is a Family Nurse Practitioner and the principal provider at Community Family Health Center. Ms. Eagle also provides primary care services at the Maple Meadows Outreach Clinic. Ms. Eagle is a lecturer in the Community Health Nursing Program at the School of Nursing. Her research interests include health of Latino population in the United States, health needs of the uninsured and diabetes prevention. She is Principal Investigator for the Health Promotion and Wellness Program, a project funded by Pfizer Community Affairs that provides preventive services to low-income uninsured patients. Ms. Eagle is fluent in Spanish.

Emily K. Meuleman, MS, RN, GNP-C, FNP-C. Emily received her BSN degree from Nazareth College in Kalamazoo, Michigan and her Master of Science degree in Community Health Nursing from the University of Michigan. She did post-master’s course work toward nurse practitioner certification at the University of Michigan, and is dually certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as both a Family and a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner. She has practiced for over 14 years as a nurse practitioner in family practice and geriatrics. In 2008, she joined the staff of the Nurse Managed Centers as Director and will have her primary care practice at the Community Family Health Center. She is a Clinical Instructor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing and has precepted many nurse practitioner students in Adult, Family and Gerontological NP programs. Clinical and research interests include chronic disease management, patients’ perspectives on health and illness, patient-provider relationships, community-based care, care for the underserved, and care of the older adult. Personal interests include quilt-making, knitting and reading.

Michelle Pardee, MS, APRN-BC, FNP is a Family Nurse Practitioner with nine years of experience as a Nurse Practitioner. Ms. Pardee is a lecturer in the School of Nursing for first and second year FNP students, and is also the clinical coordinator for the ANP, FNP, and PNP programs. Her current clinical practice is at Community Family Health Center, where she provides primary care for all ages. She is also the health care provider at Ozone House outreach clinic, a collaboration with Ozone House to provide health care for homeless and runaway adolescents who receive services from any of the programs run by Ozone.

Ms. Pardee's area of clinical interest is the adolescent population, and most of her clinical practice has been devoted to this vulnerable age group.

Joanne M. Pohl, PhD, APRN, BC, FAAN is an Adult Nurse Practitioner with more than 28 years experience with primary care practices and predominately nurse managed center practices. Her current practice is at Community Family Health Center, one of the two School of Nursing nurse managed centers. Dr. Pohl links her practice with the School of Nursing's missions of research, teaching and service. In this practice she sees clients ages 12 through older adult one evening a week, precepting at least one NP student as well. She has supervised more than 30 master's students scholarly projects out of the nurse managed centers. Her research focus includes examining outcomes of care and cost of care in Nurse Managed Centers. Dr. Pohl serves as principal investigator (PI) on the W.K. Kellogg Foundation funded Institute for Nursing Centers which has created a National Data Warehouse on nurse managed health centers. She is also funded by AHRQ (PI) on the Ambulatory Safety and Quality Program: Improving Quality Through Clinician Use of Health IT in Nurse Managed Health Centers and Federally Qualified Health Centers.

Laura Struble, PhD, GNP, BC, is a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner. Her area of expertise is in Neurology, Dementia Care, and managing disruptive behaviors. She has been a Nurse Practitioner for 12 years, and a Medical-Surgical Clinical Nurse Specialist for 13 years. Currently, she has an innovative collaborative practice with Dr. Mary Blazek who is a Geriatric Psychiatrist at Chelsea Community Hospital, Outpatient Behavioral Health. Dr. Struble evaluates and treats older adults with mental illnesses and dementia and educates professional and family caregivers. She also provides care for residents at Towsley Village, a dementia assisted living facility. Dr. Struble is a Clinical Assistant Professor and coordinator of the Gerontology Nurse Practitioner Program in the School of Nursing. She precepts gerontology nurse practitioner students in her practice and has 2nd career nursing students at Chelsea Hospital and Towsley Village for their gerontology medical-surgical experience. Her current pilot research involves evaluating the efficacy of acupuncture for middle stage dementia and agitation patients. Her research interests include environmental design for dementia special care units and interventions for disruptive behaviors.

BJ (Barbara-Jean) Sullivan, PhD, APRN, BC, is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry whose current clinical practice as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner is at the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry Depression Center. While Dr. Sullivan has been board certified as an Advanced Practice Nurse for over 30 years, she is also a Fully Licensed Clinical Psychologist who approaches her work with clients from a multidisciplinary perspective. At the Depression Center, Dr. Sullivan’s clinical and research interests are in working with clients with mood disorders. In particular, she is interested in life adjustments (chronic illness, childbearing, marriage, divorce, college life, etc.) and the interface of psychosocial factors in the regulation of biologically managed affective disorders, most specifically bipolar disorder. Dr. Sullivan is a Clinical Assistant Professor, Co-Coordinator of the undergraduate psychiatric nursing program and Coordinator of the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Program in the School of Nursing. Dr. Sullivan teaches both graduate and undergraduate students and advises graduate scholarly projects. Her own scholarly interests are in the area of developmental traumas and the prevention of physical and psychiatric sequelae through early intervention.