Jill Hamilton
PhD, RN, FAAN
Dr. Hamilton's research interests include health disparities, social and cultural factors that influence health, and the coping strategies used among older African American cancer survivors and their families.
Specialty
A former Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar, Dr. Hamilton aims to understand how African Americans use religion and spirituality to manage stressful life situations and cope with disease.
Titles and Roles
- Associate Professor, Office of Academic Advancement
- Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University
- Research Program
- Cancer Prevention and Control
Biography
Jill Hamilton, RN, PhD, FAAN, is Associate Professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Hamilton previously held faculty positions at Johns Hopkins University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was a tenured Associate Professor.
Dr. Hamilton was a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar from 2003-2007 and a member of the 2014 Class of the UNC Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholars. She is currently a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a Faculty Scholar of the Center for Spirituality, Theology & Health at Duke University.
Education
Dr. Hamilton earned her BSN, MSN, and PhD in nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a BS in Accounting from North Carolina Central University, and postdoctoral training in the nursing care of older adults at the Oregon Health & Science University.
Research
Dr. Hamilton's research interests include health disparities, social and cultural factors that influence health, and the coping strategies used among older African American cancer survivors and their families. She has developed measures of coping and spirituality and has conducted research to examine ways sociocultural factors influence how older African Americans use social support and spirituality.
Publications
Dr. Hamilton is published on topics related to social support, religiosity, spirituality, and quality of life among African Americans with life-threatening illness. She has done original research on the effects of religious songs and verses from Scripture on coping with stress among older and younger African Americans which is published in the Journal of Religion and Health, the Gerontologist, and Nursing Research. Her research on the use of religious songs to alleviate psychological distress when diagnosed with cancer is published in Cancer Nursing.
Publications Publication Date
Awards
Dr. Hamilton was the recipient of the 2011 Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Publishing's Division Award for Excellence in Writing Qualitative Research.