As a clinical nurse consultant with the UIC School of Public Health, Dr. Janice Phillips was working on avoidable mortality from cancer as part of a National Cancer Institute (NCI) funded grant. The program screened low-income women, provided services and education, and assisted with referrals and follow-ups. During this work, Dr. Phillips began to recognize an important pattern.

“I became very intrigued that some of the women in the community wouldn't come in for services, even though our services were free for those who could not afford them. People were not coming despite advertisements and outreach efforts.”

Her desire to identify factors and barriers among low- and middle-income African American women became the basis of her dissertation work at UIC, under the mentorship of Dr. JoEllen Wilbur. After receiving her PhD from the College of Nursing, she went to the University of Maryland School of Nursing to teach community health and oncology. She served five years as a program director for the National Institutes for Nursing Research (NINR), and in 1999 was named to a Distinguished Lectureship from the Oncology Nursing Society for her work entitled, “African American women moving beyond fear, fatalism and silence.”

While the lectureship was designed for a professional audience, it has been revised and updated to share more broadly all around the U.S. and Barbados. Dr. Phillips believes that, as a scientist, once she has findings, she needs to tailor meaningful messages about them for the people who can benefit from them. “People really are thirsty for knowledge – they appreciate you sharing research findings in a very user-friendly matter.”

She has a crucial message for students and her fellow alumni from the College of Nursing:

“Nobody gets to where they are without someone helping them. When you finish your goal, go back and honor the people who helped you to get to where you are. Share your resources, your experience. Just as people have helped you, it's important to reach back and help others. When you complete these credentials, you have a responsibility to do something with them to advance the profession, and do it with a sense of urgency and excellence.”

Your input? Write and tell us about who helped you get beyond!