May 2015
Barbara
Mcmorris
,
PhD
University of Minnesota School of Nursing
Minneapolis
,
MN
United States
Dr. McMorris provided me with an incredible opportunity.
Dr. Barbara McMorris is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, a funded researcher, and a research mentor to many. Personally, Dr. Barbara McMorris serves on my dissertation committee and as my faculty advisor in my Interdisciplinary Research in Child and Adolescent health fellowship training program (2013-present). I have shared many moments in Dr. McMorris’s office, talking shop (e.g., about dissertation research, teaching strategies, and life outside of school), working on extra research projects together, and geeking out over statistics.
My dissertation work began with my National Research Service Award grant proposal. My grant was not funded on the first submission; however, when working on the resubmission, even when she did not have the time to do so, Dr. McMorris took the time to write a letter of support and review my entire NRSA grant proposal. The feedback she provided was invaluable and allowed me to make important revisions before resubmitting my grant, which was funded. My dissertation research is very methods-focused, and given her background as a methodologist, Dr. McMorris and I have spent several hours discussing analyses and results. Her mentorship has been critically helpful in keeping me on track and my momentum and motivation going strong.
Knowing my desire to build additional community partnered research skills and my love of the Youth Farm, a healthy youth development cooking and gardening program, Dr. McMorris provided me with an incredible opportunity. She helped me to build relationships with her community partner, the Youth Farm Director, by inviting me to meetings and to help write a letter of intent for a University of Minnesota small grant opportunity. Although the letter of intent was not successful, my relationship with the Youth Farm was formed, and Dr. McMorris offered me access to Youth Farm evaluation data. This led to a research project with our community partner at the Youth Farm. Dr. McMorris was my go-to when I needed to bounce methodological issues around and was experiencing writer’s block. With her mentorship and assistance, Dr. McMorris, Youth Farm’s Director, and I recently submitted a manuscript for review detailing findings from a secondary data analysis of Youth Farm program data. This experience was an invaluable learning opportunity about community partnered research projects and would not have been possible without Dr. McMorris’s exceptional mentorship, guidance, and connections within the community.
Dr. McMorris pushes me past the boundaries of what I think is possible. For example, she actually understands how I am able to be more productive if I am working on more than one project at a time; even when I was resistant to adding another research project to the mix (to build my skill set around using population-based student survey data), she pushed me gently. Now, we’re in the middle of a secondary data analysis project that will provide important policy implications around school lunches.
In addition, Dr. Mc Morris shares my love of statistics and statistical packages. We regularly geek out and joke about our statistical codes and coding errors, and she helps me troubleshoot my code when I just cannot figure out why my code is not running. Additionally, she allows me to use her laptop and HLM software to run advanced hierarchical models, as the software is cost-prohibitive for me to purchase.
While I have been incredibly fortunate enough to have Dr. McMorris as one of my exceptional mentors, she is also an exceptional mentor to a host of students including undergraduate students in the nursing honors program (n=6), master’s students (n=10), doctoral students in Ph.D. programs (n=5), and post-doctoral (n=10) fellows in the Interdisciplinary Research in Child and Adolescent Health Training program. Her mentorship and support for students and fellows result in high-quality research projects and professional development.
My dissertation work began with my National Research Service Award grant proposal. My grant was not funded on the first submission; however, when working on the resubmission, even when she did not have the time to do so, Dr. McMorris took the time to write a letter of support and review my entire NRSA grant proposal. The feedback she provided was invaluable and allowed me to make important revisions before resubmitting my grant, which was funded. My dissertation research is very methods-focused, and given her background as a methodologist, Dr. McMorris and I have spent several hours discussing analyses and results. Her mentorship has been critically helpful in keeping me on track and my momentum and motivation going strong.
Knowing my desire to build additional community partnered research skills and my love of the Youth Farm, a healthy youth development cooking and gardening program, Dr. McMorris provided me with an incredible opportunity. She helped me to build relationships with her community partner, the Youth Farm Director, by inviting me to meetings and to help write a letter of intent for a University of Minnesota small grant opportunity. Although the letter of intent was not successful, my relationship with the Youth Farm was formed, and Dr. McMorris offered me access to Youth Farm evaluation data. This led to a research project with our community partner at the Youth Farm. Dr. McMorris was my go-to when I needed to bounce methodological issues around and was experiencing writer’s block. With her mentorship and assistance, Dr. McMorris, Youth Farm’s Director, and I recently submitted a manuscript for review detailing findings from a secondary data analysis of Youth Farm program data. This experience was an invaluable learning opportunity about community partnered research projects and would not have been possible without Dr. McMorris’s exceptional mentorship, guidance, and connections within the community.
Dr. McMorris pushes me past the boundaries of what I think is possible. For example, she actually understands how I am able to be more productive if I am working on more than one project at a time; even when I was resistant to adding another research project to the mix (to build my skill set around using population-based student survey data), she pushed me gently. Now, we’re in the middle of a secondary data analysis project that will provide important policy implications around school lunches.
In addition, Dr. Mc Morris shares my love of statistics and statistical packages. We regularly geek out and joke about our statistical codes and coding errors, and she helps me troubleshoot my code when I just cannot figure out why my code is not running. Additionally, she allows me to use her laptop and HLM software to run advanced hierarchical models, as the software is cost-prohibitive for me to purchase.
While I have been incredibly fortunate enough to have Dr. McMorris as one of my exceptional mentors, she is also an exceptional mentor to a host of students including undergraduate students in the nursing honors program (n=6), master’s students (n=10), doctoral students in Ph.D. programs (n=5), and post-doctoral (n=10) fellows in the Interdisciplinary Research in Child and Adolescent Health Training program. Her mentorship and support for students and fellows result in high-quality research projects and professional development.