Community Health Nurse Specialist Certification
PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago
MS, University of Illinois at Chicago
BSN, University of Illinois at Chicago
ADN, Triton College
Community health, intellectual disabilities, disabilities, mental health, health promotion, program development
Sarah Ailey, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Community, Systems, and Mental Health Nursing at Rush University, Chicago, IL. Her research and scholarly practice are concentrated on improving the lives of people with disabilities, in particular intellectual disabilities, by translating research into practice within community and inpatient hospital settings. Ailey is the Principal Investigator for two federally funded programs. With a five year grant from the Administration for Community Living, the five core partners of the PATH-PWIDD (Partnering with Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to Improve Health Outcomes) Program are building a National Cross-Sector Consortium to address the lack of content about individuals with ID/DD in current interprofessional health education curriculum. The five core partners are Rush University, St. John Fisher Golisano Institute for Developmental Disability Nursing,The University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Minnesota Institute on Community Integration, and Villanova University. Through an R01 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute, Ailey is currently investigating the effect of the Steps to Effective Problem-solving (STEPS) program in group homes. She, along with Molly Bathje and Tamar Heller, were funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to hold the PATH-PWD (Partnering to Transform Healthcare with People with Disabilities) Conference in 2017, with additional funding from the Working for Transformative Healthcare (WITH) Foundation to bring self-advocates with disabilities to the conference and to provide pre-conference training in conference advocacy prior to the conference. Following that conference, with funding from the WITH Foundation, Ailey and Bathje produced a documentary None of us Want to Stand Still, which is available on the AHRQ Priority Populations Resources page of its website. She has been the advisor and/or content by translating research into practice within community and inpatient hospital settings expert for more than 40 PhD, DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice) and MSN (Master of Science in Nursing) students on projects related to the care of people with disabilities, mostly related to intellectual disabilities.
Along with Beth Marks she was an author of the White Paper on Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in Nursing Educational Programs for the California Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities (CCEPD). Ailey has been on the Board of the Alliance for Disability in Healthcare Education since 2015 and has been the President since 2018.
2018 Pinnacle Nurse Leader Award Power of Nursing Leadership Annual Meeting Chicago
2015 Excellence in Community Service Award, Rush University
2009 Eugene J-MA Thonar Award – Rush University Medical Center for contribution to Rush’s efforts to improve possibilities for individuals with disabilities; patients, employees and community.
Administration For Community Living
90DNHE0001-01-00
Principal Investigator
2020 - 2025
Partnering to Transform Health Outcomes with Persons with Intellectual Disabilities and Developmental Disabilities (PATH-PWIDD)
NIH, National Institute of Aging
R01AG056393
Co-Investigator
2018 - 2021
Dementia Caregiver Chronic Grief Management: A Live Online Video Intervention
Internal Funding
Co-Investigator
2018
Shared decision-making and people with disabilities
Internal Funding
Co-Investigator
2018
Hospitality Services for people with Disabilities. Hosted by Rush University Medical Center.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development
R01HD086211
2016 - 2021
Principal Investigator
Steps to Effective Problem-Solving in Group Homes
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
R13HS024843
Principal Investigator
Partnering to Transform Healthcare with People with Disabilities Conference
The Special Hope Foundation (now the Working for Inclusive and Transformative Healthcare Foundation)
Principal Investigator
Partnering to Transform Healthcare with People with Disabilities Conference