Nicole Adams
Project Director
Dr. Nicole Adams PhD, RN is an Associate Research Professor at the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (RCHE) at Purdue University. She has a background in nursing and health policy with over 15 years of bedside and leadership experience in hospitals, primarily in the emergency department. Her expertise includes community engaged research and systems of care, particularly recovery-oriented systems of care to address mental health and substance use. The topics of Dr. Adams research project range from community level interventions for mental health and substance use to Narcan delivery drones and software systems that increase efficiency for frontline staff. Much of her work focuses on improving outcomes for rural populations through innovations in delivery models to increase access to care. This includes increasing knowledge and confidence while decreasing stigma among nurses, preparing them to treat patients with substance use disorders through open access education.
Elizabeth Harris
Project Coordinator
Libby Harris, a registered nurse and PhD student at Purdue University, boasts over two decades of experience in emergency care, women’s health, leadership, substance use disorders, and chronic pain services. Her research interests revolve around patient engagement, opioid use disorder, and chronic pain. Additionally, she actively serves on the board of the Indiana Nurses Foundation and advocates for nurses throughout Indiana.
Karen Foli
Content Expert (Project Director: NSUE-MOOC; Project Director: APROUD MOOC, Year 1)
Dr. Karen J. Foli is Professor and the Louise Herrington Endowed Chair for Mental Health Nursing, Baylor University, Dallas, Texas. Her work is bound together by the lens of psychological trauma and supporting psychological safety. She acted as the project director of the Nurses’ Substance Use Education through a Massive Open, Online Course (NSUE-MOOC) and Year 1 project director for the Advanced Practice Nurses’ Opioid Use Disorder Education through a Massive Open Online Course (APROUD-MOOC), continuing through Years 2 and 3 as a nurse faculty team member, both SAMHSA-funded projects. As a nurse theorist, Dr. Foli conceptualized and disseminated a middle-range theory of nurses in recovery from substance use in 2024. She has published several findings from her supported empirical work through the National Council of State Boards of Nursing: Center for Regulatory Excellence. She is also the recipient of numerous research and teaching awards and is co-author of The Influence of Psychological Trauma in Nursing (2019). This book received two first place Wolters Kluwer, Health, and the American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Awards 2019 for psychiatric/mental health nursing and nursing education. Dr. Foli is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and in the Academy of Nursing Education through the National League for Nursing. The impact of her work is reflected in that Dr. Foli was one of the top 2% of scholars cited globally in 2024, across 22 scientific fields and 174 subfields.
Lindsey Becker
Content Expert
Lindsey Becker, MSN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, is a dually certified Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner with over a decade of experience serving underserved and vulnerable populations. Throughout her nursing career, she has provided comprehensive care to individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. She currently teaches Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing to undergraduate nursing students and provides clinical care to patients at a local mental health clinic.
Wanju Huang
Instructional Design Expert
Dr. Wanju Huang is a Clinical Associate Professor of Learning Design and Technology and an Innovation and Entrepreneurship fellow at Purdue University. Her research focuses on online learning, professional development in STEM fields, augmented reality/virtual reality, learning analytics, and the integration of artificial intelligence in education. She has received awards for her teaching and instructional design and has published and presented at both national and international conferences. She has contributed to several NSF-funded projects as Co-PI and key personnel. Currently, she serves as the Director of Online Learning and Evaluation for Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement (SCALE), funded by the Department of Defense.
Wilella Burgess
Project Evaluator
Wilella Burgess is an interdisciplinary researcher, professional evaluator, and director of Purdue’s Evaluation and Learning Research Center (ELRC). She has over 30 years of experience developing and evaluating formal and informal education programs and methodologies for a variety of audiences. Her current work focuses on innovations that improve learning, well-being, and personal or organizational development and capacity. Inspired by her Ecology background, Burgess uses a context-centered systems approach to research and evaluation that strives to understand not only what works, but why it works, for whom, and under what conditions. Burgess collaborates with faculty in all colleges across campus, as well as Colleges and Universities, Foundations, Government Agencies, and NGOs, both domestically and internationally.
Sheila Abebe
Consultant
Dr. Sheila Y. Abebe, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC is an Assistant Professor at the School of Nursing at Purdue University. She has progressive clinical and leadership experience across the lifespan and continuum of care. Her research focuses on acute and chronic pain management of sickle cell anemia in Kenya and maternal opioid use disorders within the United States. She has published and presented at state and national conferences. The train-the-trainer program was developed in Kenya to increase capacity on clinical manifestations and management of acute and chronic pain education.