de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging News
Scholar Spotlight: Delina Berhe
May 8, 2026
Delina Mesfin Berhe is a UW School of Nursing BSN student and one of the center’s 2025-2026 Healthy Aging Scholars. Her project is on “Exploring Factors Associated with the Use of Physical and Chemical Restraints in Hospitalized Older Adults with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias”. Her faculty mentor is Maya Elias. Why did you choose…
Scholar Spotlight: Christina Tran
May 1, 2026
Christina Tran is a BSN student and one of the de Tornyay Center 2025-2026 Healthy Aging Undergraduate Research Scholars. Her project is on, “Social Determinants of Health, Inflammation, and Sleep Disturbances in Older Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Survivors.” Her faculty mentor is Dr. Eeeseung Byun. Why did you choose to go into nursing? Growing up, I had…
Scholar Spotlight: Amber Beeson
April 21, 2026

Amber Beeson is a BSN student, and one of the center 2025-2026 Healthy Aging Scholars. Her project is on “Analyzing musician perspectives in co-designing music-based memory loss programming”, and her faculty mentors are Basia Belza and Sarah McKiddy. Why did you choose to go into nursing? One of the main things that brought me to…
Scholar Spotlight: Chiayu Chen
March 24, 2026

Chiayu Chen is one of the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging’s 2026-2027 Healthy Aging Scholars. Her project is on “Support Transitions Between Levels of Care at a local retirement community”, and her faculty mentor is Jamie Young. Why did you choose to go into nursing? It started with my grandfather, who had liver cancer.…
Scholar Spotlight: Michelle Thomas
March 24, 2026

Michelle Thomas is a DNP student and one of the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging’s Healthy Aging Scholars. Her project is on “Improving Timely Colonoscopy Follow-up after Abnormal Fecal Immunochemical Test Results in the Veteran Population.” Her mentors are Katherine Murrow and Brenda Zierler. Why did you choose to go into nursing? I have…
Scholar Spotlight: Li Downs
March 18, 2026

Li Downs is a DNP in Nursing Science student and one of the de Tornyay Center’s 2025-2026 Healthy Aging Scholars. Her project is on, “Enhancing Education on Post-Intensive Care Syndrome: A Nurse-Led Quality Improvement Initiative in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit at Harborview Medical Center” and her mentors are Maya Elias and Kristine McGlennen. Why…