Shannon L. Gillespie
Shannon Gillespie, PhD, RN, is a nurse scientist and a clinical and translational immunobiologist. Her research aims to optimize the health of pregnant and postpartum individuals and the health of their children. She does this by designing and testing new ways to predict and prevent complications of pregnancy and postpartum, with special emphasis on preterm birth, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and prenatal and postpartum depression. As a nurse scientist, her experience includes patient-oriented and clinical data collection and use of cellular and molecular immunomonitoring methods, integrated into healthcare settings. As a faculty member, she has taught undergraduate (e.g., pathophysiology) and graduate (e.g., genetics and epigenetics) courses and mentors nursing and transdisciplinary students at all levels.
Gillespie has always been motivated to help others, leading her to earn a BA in psychology from Ohio University, followed by RN licensure and an MS and PhD in nursing from The Ohio State University. Gillespie has advanced on projects funded by the National Institutes of Health for more than 20 years, from an undergraduate research assistant to a graduate research associate, individual pre-doctoral fellow, and career development awardee. Her transition into nursing was fueled by her family’s experiences with health and illness, which she reflects on often as a clinician, scientist and teacher.
Laboratory and study websites:
News
New data finds stress, anxiety and depression spike for those feeling the weight of a “culture of achievement”
Is the status of “perfect parent” attainable?
Researchers leading a national dialogue about parental burnout from The Ohio State University College of Nursing and the university’s Office of the Chief Wellness Officer say “no,” and a new study finds that pressure to try to be “perfect” leads to unhealthy impacts on both parents and their children.
Groundbreaking study provides a promising solution for preventing a major complication of pregnancy
According to the World Health Organization, more than 15 million babies are born preterm every year. More than one million of those babies lose their lives. Methods to predict risk for and prevent preterm birth are few and far between.
