New Investigator Research
Award 2002-03
Dr. Martha Moon,
Ph.D., Associate Professor, Integrative Systems
Although Dr. Moon is new to a faculty role,
she was a highly productive researcher prior
to becoming an academic. Since 1982, her
research focus has been on AIDS prevention.
In her position as clinical director of
the Fenway Community Health Center in Boston
from 1984-91, she directed a number of research
programs and had four publications and 12
national/international presentations based
on that research. Demonstrating her ability
to secure extramural funding quite early
in
her career, Dr. Moon’s doctoral dissertation
was funded by NINR (NRSA) and NIMH (R03).
She also competed successfully for a postdoctoral
fellowship at the prestigious Center for
AIDS Prevention Studies at the University
of California, San Francisco. During her
postdoctoral training period, Dr. Moon spent
a year in Zimbabwe building infrastructure
for future clinical research. That groundwork
has supported multiple clinical trials and
has resulted to date in two publications
and seven national/international research
presentations.
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In her relatively short time in the faculty
role at VCU, she has conducted funded research
with sexual minority adolescents and African-American
adolescents in Richmond with competitive
intramural awards from the Faculty Grant
in Aid and A.D. Williams funds. She recently
awarded an extramural grant to examine community-wide
needs assessment using focus groups from
the Campus Community Partnership of Metro
Richmond. Dr. Moon’s record of publications
and research presentations has continued,
with six articles published and five national
or international presentations in the past
five years.
Above these numerous accomplishments, Dr.
Moon has written four major research proposals
for federal-level funding. Two of these
proposals were approved at the level of
funding consideration, but funds were not
awarded.
Dr. Moon has served on several research
review committees, including service for
federal and specialty organizations such
as HRSA AIDS Service Demonstration grants;
U.S. Conference of Mayors HIV Service and
Education Grants; National Council on Family
Relations, Family and Health Section; and
the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care Annual
Conference. She has reviewed research manuscripts
for The Journal of Perinatal Education and
Health Education & Behavior, and she
served on the Editorial Board for a special
issue of the Journal of Homosexuality.
Remarkably, Dr. Moon has achieved all this
while also maintaining excellence in both
the service and teaching roles. For example,
her proposal for a visiting research professor
was funded and provided a visiting scholar
(Dr. Lynn Rew) to VCU in 2001. In that same
year, she was inducted as a Distinguished
Practitioner and member of the National
Academy of Practice in Nursing. She has
served with distinction on numerous school
and university committees, including chairing
the Affirmative Action Committee of the
VCU Faculty Senate and serving on the A.D.
Williams Advisory Committee. Dr. Moon also
submitted a competitive proposal for an
innovative, inter-university partnership
educational program entitled Multidisciplinary
Consortium for the Study of AIDS in Southern
Africa (M’SASA), and with the VCU
Office of International Education, she developed
an international nursing educational experience
to be implemented in the summer of 2003
in Guatemala. Recently Dr. Moon was funded
by the Division of Nursing for her proposal
to expand public health nursing experiences
for undergraduate students. |
