Jen'nea Sumo, PhD, RN

Jen’nea Sumo, PhD, RN’s research interests center around exploring factors that support and hinder the health and well- being of African American parental caregivers and their families. Her long term goal is to develop interventions designed to support caregiving grandparents’ and improve their physical and psychological health. Her qualitative dissertation research focused on examining caregiving grandparents’ rationale for the support they provide to their children who are parenting adolescents.

Currently, Sumo is co-director on an NIH, NINR funded study to examine the effects of a parenting program for African American non-resident fatherhood on their paternal involvement, parenting competence, and psychological wellbeing, as well as, child behavior. Sumo plans to expand her research to examine the effects of environment on gene expression in caregiving grandparents and their families.

Her primary teaching responsibilities are in the graduate entry to master’s program focusing on the socialization of students to the nursing profession and research for evidence based practice.