PhD – Nursing, University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, MI

Biography: Dr. Alex Fauer, a certified oncology nurse, is focused on improving quality of care, health equity, and quality of life for the growing population of cancer survivors in the United States. He is nationally recognized as an emerging nurse scientist with expertise in the quality and delivery of cancer care. He aims to position himself as a national leader for cancer care delivery research, health care improvement science, and community-based partnerships among cancer centers.

As an NCSP fellow, Dr. Fauer’s advisors included Dr. Joann Elmore (UCLA), Dr. Patricia Ganz (UCLA), Dr. Karen Grimley (UCLA), Dr. Eden Brauer (UCLA), and Dr. Jacqueline Casillas (UCLA). His primary research project is titled “Environmental factors and financial hardships in long-term survivors of childhood cancer.” The primary goals for this project were to facilitate a community-partnered approach to study community-based resources to reduce financial hardships in cancer survivors and to determine potential protective factors in communities that are associated with reduced financial hardships in long-term survivors of childhood cancer. Dr. Fauer also partnered with a group of clinician scientists and health services researchers from UCLA, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, and the American Cancer Society for this work.

Dr. Fauer initiated projects during his fellowship including a mixed method study of medical oncologists recommending improvements to breast cancer survivorship care. His advisors on this project were Dr. Eden Brauer (UCLA School of Nursing) and Dr. Patti Ganz (UCLA Fielding School of Public Health). He also collaborated with NCSP scholars on quantitative, policy-based projects including a national assessment of risks of catastrophic health expenditures among non-elderly adults with cancer with high deductible health plans. During NCSP fellowship, he co-authored four editorials in peer-reviewed journals on topics including nurses roles in preventing police violence and unjust policing in health care (International Journal of Nursing Studies); a call to action for nursing leadership in mitigating health care discrimination towards transgender and non-binary individuals (Journal of Nursing Scholarship); divesting carceral systems from the care of survivors of gender-based violence (Public Health Nursing); and diversifying the pipeline of faculty in US schools of nursing (Nursing Outlook).

Dr. Fauer engaged in volunteer activities at a national level. These activities included serving on the peer review board for the journal Oncology Nursing Forum, published by the Oncology Nursing Society; serving as an expect judge for the Oncology Nursing Society 2021 Hackathon; and presenting his research at various academic research departments across the US. Dr. Fauer also mentored numerous nursing undergraduate and graduate students on scholarly writing and career strategy.

Following the NCSP, Dr. Fauer transitioned to a tenure track appointment as Assistant Professor of Nursing at UC Davis School of Nursing which is a research-intensive school with an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center.