Faculty & Staff

Rosemary White-Traut, PhD, RN, FAAN

Professor
Department of Women, Children and Family Health Science

NURS 806
UIC College of Nursing
845 South Damen Avenue (MC 802)
Chicago, IL 60612-7350

Phone: 312.996.7935
Email: rwt@uic.edu

Research / Discovery
Dr. White-Traut is known for her research on developmental intervention for infants. The intervention, known as the ATVV intervention, provides auditory stimuli via female human voice; tactile stimuli via moderate touch stroking; visual stimuli in the form of eye-to-eye contact; and vestibular, as rocking stimuli. Dr. White-Traut's research includes the evaluation of physiologic and behavioral responses of clinically stable and brain injured premature infants from 33-36 weeks gestational age. She has documented patterns of maternal-infant interaction to improve when mothers are taught ATVV to administer on their premature infants. The ATVV has also been shown to improve feeding progression, neurobehavioral organization, and development, and decreases length of hospital stay. Dr. White-Traut and her team are now testing an integrated intervention, the H-HOPE, which includes the ATVV with the addition of home visits by nurse/community advocate teams. Her research has also recently expanded to evaluating the maturation of feeding ability in response to the ATVV, the impact of the special care nursery environment on physiologic responses of premature infants as well as neuro-hormonal responses of infants and their mothers to developmental intervention.

Teaching / Learning
Dr. White-Traut teaches a maternal-infant research seminar in the College of Nursing.

Service / Practice
Dr. White-Traut is a member of the Board of Directors of the Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute and the Medical Round Table, the Pathways Awareness Foundation. Dr. White-Traut is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetrics, and Neonatal Nursing.

Personal
Dr. White-Traut enjoys gardening and walking.

Current Research Projects:

• Feeding & Transition to Home for Preterms at Social Risk
• Mother Administered Interventions for VLBW Infants
• Harris Visiting Professorship
• Reducing Disparities in Underserved Populations (co-I)
• Neonatal Sucking Organization After Epidural Analgesia (Faculty Sponsor)
• Postpartum Depressive Symptoms: A Search for Biological Marker (Faculty Sponsor)