Faculty Candidate Presentation: Lisa M. Vandemark, PhD, RN

Reducing Stigma against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders

Dr. Vandemark is a clinician, educator, and policy researcher in Washington, DC. Dr. Vandemark earned her Bachelors of Science degree in Nursing from Rutgers University, Master’s degree in Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing from Catholic University, and PhD in Geography from Rutgers University. She also earned a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Post-Graduate Certificate from Rush University.

As an advanced practice psychiatric nurse, Dr. Vandemark maintains a practice working with adults and children. Most recently, she was a lecturer in the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and Doctorate of Nursing programs at Johns Hopkins University, and a Senior Program Officer at the National Academy of Sciences where she directed a study about reducing stigma related to mental and substance use disorders. Previously, Dr. Vandemark was a nurse consultant at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and Assistant Director for Research for the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). From 2006 to 2011, as an Assistant Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina and George Mason University, she taught courses in psychiatric nursing, health policy and global health. Dr. Vandemark was a Fulbright Scholar in Southeast Asia in 2008, and she continues as a Fulbright specialist for curriculum development and global health. Her research interests include reducing stigma related to mental and substance use disorders, and improving health-related quality of life for people with these disorders.

In her presentation Dr. Vandemark discusses stigma, or negative stereotyping and how it discourages people from seeking treatment and exposes them to discrimination in housing, employment and education. Her presentation will summarize the findings of a study she directed at the National Academy of Sciences, and highlight communications strategies that can reduce stigma and discrimination against people with mental and substance use disorders. The report that this presentation draws from can be downloaded from https://www.nap.edu/catalog/23442/ending-discrimination-against-people-with-mental-and-substance-use-disorders.

Live-stream is available for this event. Link will be active on the day of the presentation: https://arizona.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=fe6d313b-da6c-4d01-9ce3-a877016601e1