2027 Annual Research Symposium
27th Annual Research Symposium
Demonstrating the Impact of Nursing on Education and Research: Advancing Innovation, Evidence and Holistic Care
Call for Abstracts
Deadline: Friday, November 20, 2026
Keynote Speaker
Dawn Bounds, PhD, PMHNP-BC, FAAN
Associate Professor at UC Irvine, Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing
As healthcare continues to evolve, nursing research and scholarship play a critical role in improving patient outcomes, advancing education, promoting health equity, strengthening the workforce and shaping the future of healthcare delivery. This year's symposium will showcase innovative research, educational scholarship, evidence-based practice and quality improvement initiatives that demonstrate nursing's contribution to health, learning and care transformation across clinical, academic, community and policy settings
We welcome abstracts that demonstrate nursing research, scholarship, innovation and evidence-based practice in one or more of the following areas:
Health outcomes and quality of care
Health equity and vulnerable populations
Integrative and holistic health
Education and workforce development
Leadership and healthcare transformation
Technology, informatics, and digital health
Partnerships, implementation, and knowledge translation
Authors are encouraged to highlight the significance, outcomes and implications of their work, demonstrating how nursing scholarship advances health, education and healthcare through innovation, evidence and person-centered care.
Share Your Work. Inspire Innovation. Advance Nursing's Impact.
Join colleagues from across academia, practice and research as we showcase the scholarship, discoveries and innovations shaping the future of nursing and healthcare.
Dawn Bounds, PhD, PMHNP-BC, FAAN
Associate Professor
UC Irvine, Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing
Dr. Dawn Bounds is an Associate Professor of Nursing and Founding Director of the Centering Youth and Families for Empowerment and Resilience (CYFER) Lab at UC Irvine. With over 20 years of clinical practice as a board-certified psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner, her research is driven by an unwavering commitment to health equity for youth and families navigating systemic adversity.
As a first-generation college student, Dr. Bounds intentionally eliminates the line between education and research by creating direct pathways to science by embedding experiential educational opportunities for students from historically underrepresented or first-generation backgrounds into her research.
At the heart of Dr. Bounds' work is authentic partnership with youth and communities. Through Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), she trains youth as co-researchers and collaborators—ensuring that the communities most impacted by structural violence and mental health inequities have a genuine voice in shaping the interventions designed to serve them.
The CYFER Lab develops culturally grounded, trauma-informed digital mental health interventions that address the structural determinants of health. Dr. Bounds is the Principal Investigator of an NIH/NIDA-funded R01 and a nationally recognized expert in adolescent digital mental health and ethical mHealth innovation.