Dena Schulman-Green

Dena Schulman-Green, MA, EdM, MS, PhD, FAAHPM is Director of the Florence S. Downs PhD Program in Nursing Research and Theory Development and Associate Professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. Her 20+ years in clinical nursing research are grounded in an interdisciplinary background of psychology, gerontology, and palliative care. Schulman-Green’s scholarship centers on self- and family management of serious chronic illness, with an emphasis on early integration of palliative care. She is a lead developer of the internationally recognized Middle Range Theory of Self- and Family Management of Chronic Illness and co-developed the Managing Cancer Care intervention with women and family caregivers facing breast and ovarian cancer. Her funders include the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, and the National Palliative Care Research Center.

Currently, Schulman-Green leads and collaborates on various studies related to cancer, dementia, and palliative care. A recognized expert in qualitative and mixed methods research, she consults widely. Schulman-Green is deeply committed to mentorship, routinely involving PhD students and postdoctoral fellows in her work. She serves on the Leadership Development Committee of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.

Prior to joining NYU Meyers, Schulman-Green was first a Research Scientist and later an Associate Professor at Yale School of Nursing, where she also directed the Qualitative and Mixed Methods Core of the Center for Biobehavioral Health. Additionally, she held faculty roles in the Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program and the Interprofessional Palliative Care Education Program at Yale School of Medicine and was instrumental in strengthening Yale’s palliative care research infrastructure.

Among her many honors, Schulman-Green has received the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization Research Award, the Suzanne Feetham Nurse Scientist Family Research Award, the Yale School of Nursing’s Annie W. Goodrich Award for Excellence in Teaching, and NYU Meyers’ Dean’s Excellence in Mentoring Award. She has also been recognized among the World’s Top 2% of Scientists by Stanford University/Elsevier and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and the New York Academy of Medicine.

Schulman-Green received a BA in Psychology and Religion from Boston University, a MA and EdM in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University, and a MS and PhD in Gerontology from University of Massachusetts Boston. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Breast Cancer and Palliative Care at Yale School of Nursing through a U.S. Army Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Training Grant under the mentorship of Drs. Ruth McCorkle and Elizabeth Bradley.