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Janna Lesser, PhD, RN

School of Nursing
Office for Faculty Excellence
210-845-3764
lesser@uthscsa.edu
Professor with Tenure

Janna Lesser
Community-Academic Partnership Research

 - I have been conducting community-partnered exploratory and intervention studies with individuals and communities living with a myriad of health and social inequities for over twenty years. A commitment grounded in principles of patient-centered outcomes research, health equity, and social justice guides all of my community-engaged research. Examples of target populations I have studied include; but are not limited to, inner-city dwelling adolescent mothers and fathers, disenfranchised youth (including youth in the juvenile justice system), families living in predominantly Latino, impoverished communities, and individuals and groups living with chronic and severe mental illness. Areas in which I have made scientific contributions to research include the following three interconnected areas of work: 1) Community-Based Participatory Research HIV and Violence Intervention Development and Scientific Evaluation among at-risk Latino youth. I have collaboratively led three prevention intervention research grants that were funded by NIH, two of which were CBPR grants. The community-academic research partnership based in San Antonio, Texas, Familias en Accion, has been sustained by Federal and State funding for over 10 years. Further exemplifying the impact of this research on a national level, I have published a number of manuscripts based on my CBPR prevention research, including those that led the way to our of our HIV Prevention Program for Latino Adolescent Mothers and Fathers (Respeto/Proteger) being cited as one of the teen fatherhood programs in Elements of Promising Practice in Teen Fatherhood Programs: Evidence-Based and Evidence-Informed Research Findings on What Works (Bronte-Tinkew, Burkhauser, & Metz, 2008) and the listing in April 2012 by the Office of Adolescent Health (USDHHS) as an evidence-based model that reduces risk for sexually-transmitted infections. 2) Using Qualitative Inquiry, Participatory Action Research, and Life Course Theory to better understand at-risk Latino youth. Traditionally, many health-related programs being provided to populations experiencing health disparities were developed from existing bodies of scientific knowledge, without the benefit of formative research that focused attention to the specific needs and resources of the target community and population. In particular, this method of intervention development lacked attention to cultural and contextual factors that might either facilitate or seriously inhibit the effectiveness of any intervention. It has been my contention that a useful way to understand the life experiences of marginalized populations within the social and political context of their communities is by including a life course perspective and that both qualitative inquiry and participatory research approaches (PRAs), are consistent with a life course perspective. 3) Community Empowerment and Sustainability among Medically Underserved and Marginalized populations.


Education

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Appointments

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7/2017 - Present Director, South Texas AHEC Program UTHSA, Center for South Texas Programs
7/2017 - Present Director, Center for South Texas Programs UTHSA, Center for South Texas Programs
9/2016 - Present Professor with Tenure UT Health San Antonio, School of Nursing, San Antonio, TX
8/2016 - Present Co-Director, South Texas AHEC Program UT Health Science Center San Antonio
9/2009 - Present Director UTHSCSA School of Nursing Center of Excellence for Community-Based Health Promotion in Women and Children, Family and Community Health Systems, San Antonio, TX
8/2004 - Present Graduate Faculty University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX

Expertise

Publications

Teaching

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Date Description Institution # Students
- Present Membership on Supervising Committee UTHSA
8/2016 - Present Ph.D. Dissertations Directed UTHSCSA
5/2014 - Present Dissertation Proposal Process in Nursing The University of Texas Health Science Center
Course Director
1/2011 - Present N3205/Mental Health Theory 125 students
Course Director - Beginning 2011, we implemented this course as part of the new undergraduate curriculum (Traditional Tract). I have continued to incorporate strategies into the course that speak to the understanding that the nurses? self-knowledge in the context of the interpersonal interaction is an essential component of humanistic psychiatric nursing. Additionally, each semester we have guest speakers, living with the illnesses that our students are studying (e.g. schizophrenia, mood disorders, addiction, and PTSD) who can provide the students with the unique perspective of the lived experience.
1/2011 - Present N3206/Mental Health Clinical 125 students
Course Director
1/2011 - Present N3206/Mental Health Clnical
8/2004 - Present Mentored Res Prac:Children/Famil The University of Texas Health Science Center 4 students
Since the Fall of 2004, I have joined with other School of Nursing faculty in mentoring undergraduate students as part of the Research Scholars Program. To date, I have mentored 14 undergraduate students, some of them for as long as 3 semesters. In the Spring of 2005, 5 of these students presented 3 different poster presentations (related to the community-based research activities in which we were engaged) at both the SNRS Annual Conference in Atlanta and the WIN Annual Conference in San Francisco. In the Fall of 2006, 3 of my research scholar students were among those included in the MESA Center Research Methods Symposium at the National State of the Science Congress in Nursing Research. There they co-presented on the community-based participatory research (CBPR) project we conducted with the Prosumer group, an organization of people diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder who are proactive in their recovery and are giving back to their community. A manuscript, based on this project and first authored by an undergraduate student has been published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing. In 2010, I mentored doctoral students in Public Health as they partnered with the community group, Las Mujeres Nobles de Harlandale. This experience resulted in a publication, "The Power of Connection and Support in Community Engagement", which was identified in 2013 by the Psychology Progress team as being of special interest to the progress of the Psychology field. In the summer 0f 2012, I mentored a medical student, Anh Nyugen, who received a Medical School Summer Fellowship. In 2013-14, I am mentoring medical student Beverly Taumbe as we conducts a CSL midi-grant "Posttraumatic Growth and Quality of Life among Refugee Populations: A Participatory Action Research Study" (funded by the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics), and nursing graduate student Nathan Lesch as he assists in conducting "Promoting the Positive Development of Latino Youth in an Alternative School Setting: A Qualitative Study." In 2014, I am additionally mentoring nursing graduate student Deanna Savo as she develops and implements a research project in partnership with Haven for Hope. In February 2014 medical students Anh Nyugen and Amy Skaria were funded to conduct a CSL midi project under my mentorship entitled "Healthy Snacking, Healthy Kids" in partnership with Youth in Motion, a nutritional education and physical activity program run at the Texas Diabetes Institute.

Grants

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