Jane Harney, PhD, RN, NNP-BC

Duke University in: Certificate in College Teaching, 2020
PhD, Duke University in: Nursing, 2020
Post Master’s Certification, University of Missouri-Kansas City in: Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, 2015
MS, University of Iowa in: Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, 2002
BSN, University of Iowa in: Nursing, 1995

My program of research centers on elucidating the intricate connections between environmental stress, genomics, and epigenomics. My primary research objective is to unravel and mitigate the intergenerational transmission of environmental stress and its influence on human development. I am particularly interested in understanding how the stress of structural racism, individual discrimination, and other social disparities shape human development outcomes across generations.

Research Focus Areas

Children, Families and Reproductive Health

• Investigating infant and child physiology with a focus on long-term outcomes.
• Analyzing the impact of parental stress exposure on child developmental outcomes.

Symptom Science and Palliative Care

• Exploring the influence of environmental stress exposure on epigenetic modifications and their effects on gene expression and physiological pathways.
• Researching the role of genomic variability in shaping an individual’s response to environmental stress exposure.

Health Equity

• Examining the role of stress related to structural racism and individual discrimination in contributing to disparities in human development.
• Investigating the complex relationships between structural racism, individual discrimination, genomics, and epigenomics.
• Exploring the potential inheritance of parental epigenetic changes resulting from exposure to environmental stress and their contribution to health disparities.

Children, Families and Reproductive Health      Symptom Science and Palliative Care      Health Equity