Anita Fernander

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afern2@uky.edu
(859) 323-4679
103 Medical Behavioral Science Building

Position(s):

Regular Faculty

Affiliation(s):

Behavioral Science

Bio / Education:

University of Miami, 2000

2017 Accomplishments

Dr. Fernander completed her tenure in August as the College of Medicine’s Interim Diversity Officer where she took responsibility for developing the Diversity & Inclusion Strategic Plan for the College of Medicine. Dr. Fernander continues to serve on the Departmental Curriculum Committee and the Admissions Committee. She served as a Full member of the Medical IRB until November, 2017. She continues to serve on the Medicare Evidence Development & Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC) until her term ends in May 2020. In the past year she completed two panel reviews for the National Institutes of Health – Sleep, Health and Disparities panel and International Tobacco and Health Research and Capacity Building Program. In the past year she has served on one doctoral defense committee, one graduate doctoral qualifying examination committees, one master’s defense committee and one master’s examination committee. She currently serves on four graduate doctoral committees. She served as a primary mentor and co-author of one graduate student’s peer-reviewed journal manuscript, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. She taught Introduction to Clinical Medicine to first year medical students during Spring 2016 and Fall 2017 semesters. In addition, she served as a guest lecturer in three graduate level health science and public health courses. Dr. Fernander served as a preceptor for the iCATS (Interprofessional Collaboration and Teamwork Skills) program for health science students. Dr. Fernander served as an ad-hoc reviewer for the following journals: Ethnicity & Disease, Journal of the National Medical Association, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and Preventive Medicine. She served as a local speaker for the Lexington March for Science event as well as presenter for the national Adventist for Social Justice Conference. This year Dr. Fernander submitted two grant proposals to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – one to provide cultural humility training to family medicine residents to improve mutual respect and trust; and the other utilizing mass media to address race-related stress among African Americans through targeted and tailored coping and resiliency-based strategies. In addition she continues to build her work as founder and chair of the Lexington-Fayette County Health Disparities Coalition. She serves as a mentor and pilot grant reviewer for the University of Kentucky’s Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health and continues to formally and informally mentor underrepresented undergraduate, graduate, and medical students.

Research Description:

Dr. Fernander has a Ph.D. in Clinical Health Psychology from the University of Miami and has been in the Department of Behavioral Science at the University of Kentucky since the Fall of 2002. Dr. Fernander’s research focuses on health disparities, particularly among African Americans. She examines the influence of ethno-culturally specific constructs such as acculturative and race-related stress and John Henry active coping on risk factors (i.e., blood pressure and smoking) for cardiovascular disease and cancer. Dr. Fernander has been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to examine psychosocial factors related to tobacco use and nicotine metabolism among African American women, and by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to examine use of the tobacco cessation quitline among underserved Kentuckians as a function of county level smoking policies and regulations.

Grants:

Principal Investigator, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute. “The Impact of Smoke-Free Policy on QuitLine Utilization and Smoking Outcomes”. September, 2009 to September, 2011.

Principal Investigator, University of Kentucky, College of Medicine, Department of Behavioral Science. “Focus Groups among African American Female Current and Former Smokers”. November, 2009 to June, 2010.

Principal Investigator, Commonwealth of Kentucky Lung Cancer Research Program Investigator-Initiated Research Grant. “Examination of the Breathe Free for Women Stop Smoking Program among African American Women: A Pilot Study”. September, 2007 to August, 2009.

Principal Investigator, NIH K-12 award, DA01014040-04, “The Influence of Stress and Coping on Smoking Status and Smoking Behaviors Among Disadvantaged African American Women, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), 2003-2006.

Principal Investigator, University of Kentucky College of Medicine Research Fund Grant, “Stress, Coping, Smoking and Nicotine Metabolism Among Pregnant African American Women”, 2003-2004.

Selected Publications:

Nasim, A., Fernander, A., Townsend, T.G., Corona, R. and Belgrave, F.Z. (2011). “Cultural Protective Factors for Community Risks and Substance Use Among Rural African American Adolescents”. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, 10, 316-336.

Fernander, A., Resnicow, K., Viswanath, K. and Perez-Stable, E. (2011). “Cigarette smoking interventions among diverse populations”. American Journal of Health Promotion, 25(5), S1-S4.

Fernander, A., Rayens, M.K., Zhang, M. and Adkins, S. (2010). “Are age of smoking initiation and purchasing patterns associated with menthol smoking?”. Addiction, 105 (Suppl. 1), 39-45.

Fernander, A., Rayens, M.K., Hahn, E., Zhang, M. and Adkins, S. (2010). “Menthol smoking, smoke-free policies, and cessation services”. Addiction, 105 (Suppl. 1),105-114.

Fernander, A. Moorman, G.*, and Azuoru, M*. (2010). “Race-related stress and smoking among pregnant African American women”. Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica, 89, 558-564.

Fernander, A., Bush, H., Goldsmith-Mason, S.*, White, P. and Obi, B^. (2009). “End-of-Treatment Smoking Cessation among African-American Female Participants in the Breathe Free for Women Smoking Cessation Program: Results of a Pilot Study”. Journal of the National Medical Association, 101(10), 1034-1040.

Hedgecock, S. and Fernander, A. (2009). A Review of smoking among rural African Americans: Recommendations for research and cessation interventions”. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 3(1), 115-132.

Fernander, A. and Schumacher, M. (2008). An examination of socio-culturally specific stress and coping factors on smoking status among African American women. Stress & Health. Published online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smi.1214. July 14, 2008.

Fernander, A., Schumacher, M., Wei, X., Crooks, P. and Wedlund, P. (2008). Smoking risk and the likelihood of quitting among African-American female light and heavy smokers. Journal of the National Medical Association, 100(10), 1199-1206.

Fernander, A., Schumacher, M. and Nasim, A. (2008). “Socio-cultural stress, smoking risk and cessation among African American women”. Journal of Black Psychology, 34(1), 49-69.

Fagan, P., Moolchan, E.T., Lawrence, D., Fernander, A. and Ponder, P.K. (2007). “Identifying health disparities across the tobacco continuum.” Addiction, 102(Supplement 2), 5-29.

Moolchan, E.T., Hayward, M.D., Fagan, P., Fernander, A., Velicer, W., King, G. and Clayton. (2007). “Addressing tobacco-related health disparities”. Addiction, 102(Supplement 2), 30-42.

Fernander, A., Shavers, V. L. and Hammons, G. (2007). “A biospsychosocial approach to examining tobacco-related health disparities among racially classified social groups”. Addiction, 102(Supplement 2), 43-57.

Fernander, A. (2007). “Race, genes and tobacco related health disparities in the U.S.: What is the role of genetics?”. Addiction, 102(Supplement 2), 58-54.

Fernander, A., Patten, C., Hurt, R., Croghan, I., Offord, K., Schroeder, D., and Eberman, K. (2006). “Characteristics of six-month tobacco use outcomes of black patients seeking smoking cessation intervention.” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 17, 413-424.

Fernander, A., Price, M., Flisher, A.J., Chalton, D., King, G. and Lombard, C. (2006). “Gender differences in depression and smoking among youth in Cape Town, South Africa. Ethnicity and Disease, 16, 41-50.

Fernander, A., Wilson, J., Staton, M. and Leukefeld, C. (2005). “Exploring the type-of-crime hypothesis, religiosity, and spirituality in an adult male prison population”. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 49(6), 682-695.

Fernander, A., Patten, C. Hurt, R., Croghan, I., Schroeder, D. and Eberman, K. (2005). “Exploring the association of John Henry Active Coping, Education and John Henryism on smoking behavior and nicotine dependence among Blacks. Social Science and Medicine, 60(3), 491-500.

Fernander, A., Wilson, J., Staton, M. and Leukefeld, C. (2004). “An exploratory examination of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale among incarcerated Black and White Male Drug Users”. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 48(4), 403-413.

Fernander, A., Duran, R., Saab, P. and Schneiderman, N. (2004). “John Henry Active Coping, education, and blood pressure among urban blacks”. Journal of the National Medical Association, 96(2), 246-255.

Fernander, A., Durán, R., Saab, P., Llabre, M. and Schneiderman, N. (2003) “Assessing the reliability and validity of the John Henry Scale for Active Coping among an urban sample of African-Americans and white-Americans”. Ethnicity and Health, 8(2), 147-161.