Sabianca Delva, Ph.D., RN, is an assistant professor at the Connell School of Nursing. She received a doctor of philosophy from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor of science in nursing from Boston College. Dr. Delva has received several accolades including the Ruth Kirschtein F31 fellowship grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund her doctoral work. Dr. Delva has also been an active leader in the nursing community at large serving on the Board of Directors for the American Nurses Association (ANA) Massachusetts and also on the ANA Nominations and Elections committee nationally. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society and an inaugural inductee of the Johns Hopkins Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society.
Her research focuses on using mobile health technologies such as Fitbits and smartphone apps for management of cardiometabolic diseases in ethnic minorities using a community participatory approach. This process is firmly rooted in the belief that engaging the community will be the key to developing viable solutions to the ever-evolving challenges in health care. Dr. Delva has years of clinical experience at Mass General Hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital and the National Institutes of Health and has witnessed firsthand the hardships immigrants undergo navigating the US healthcare system. The non-English speaking patients often experience structural, cultural and linguistic barriers when accessing the health care system. Thus, she uses behavioral interventions to help ethnic minorities improve self-care management of cardiometabolic diseases to improve and ultimately reduce health disparities.
