Noelle Pavlovic

Noelle Pavlovic, PhD(c), MSN, RN is the recipient of the Eleanor C. Lambertsen Scholarship. She is a fourth year PhD Candidate at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Baltimore, MD.

Noelle graduated from Oberlin College with a bachelor’s degree in Biology, then earned a master’s degree in Microbiology and Immunology at Georgetown University. This led her to a career in basic science research investigating the molecular biology of infectious diseases. Although rewarding, basic science lacked the human connection that Noelle sought from her career. This inspired her to earn her master’s degree in Nursing at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.

After becoming a registered nurse, she worked in the Progressive Cardiovascular Care Unit at the Johns Hopkins Hospital where she cared for persons with cardiovascular disease, particularly those with advanced heart failure. In her four years in this role, she realized that persons with heart failure experience numerous symptoms that interfere significantly with their quality of life and are often not fully relieved by current medical therapies. Fatigue is one of the most distressing and quality of life limiting symptoms that people with heart failure experience and it is currently poorly understood. The incredible impact of fatigue on those living with heart failure, and our limited ability to alleviate it, drove Noelle’s desire to pursue a PhD in Nursing to understand this distressing symptom.

Noelle’s dissertation research focuses on 1) identifying unique subtypes of fatigue in those with heart failure, 2) determining the cardiac structural and functional predictors of fatigue subtypes, and 3) examining the relationship between fatigue subtypes and important patient reported and clinical outcomes. In the future, Noelle plans to pursue a faculty position at a research-intensive university to conduct her program of research and mentor future nurses and nurse scientists. She plans to use the findings from her dissertation study to inform the next phase of her research focusing on further elucidating biopsychosocial targets for multi-modal intervention to alleviate fatigue symptoms in those with heart failure. Ultimately, this work will serve her goal of developing person-centered, interdisciplinary interventions that focus on the whole person to target symptoms and improve quality of life.

During her PhD education, Noelle has completed a T32 fellowship funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research and serves as a research coordinator for her PhD program advisor developing and implementing an intervention to support caregivers of individuals with heart failure. She has several first-authored publications in high-impact peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Cardiac Failure and Heart and Lung. Noelle was also recently honored to be a finalist for an Early Career Investigator Award at the 2022 American Heart Association Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Conference for her preliminary dissertation work.

Noelle hopes to use her clinical and research experiences to improve the lives of those living with heart failure and mentor future nurses and nurse scientists. Noelle is truly grateful for the support of the Eleanor C. Lambertsen Scholarship to help her pursue these goals.