IRENE TESSARO, M.A., M.S.N., Dr.P.H.

Research Professor
School of Nursing
West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV

Dr. Tessaro is a nurse with more than 30 years of experience in the health care industry. Notable employment settings for Dr. Tessaro have included serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Medicine, Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia; Assistant Research Professor, School of Nursing, Duke University; Adjunct Assistant Professor in both Health Behavior and Health Education and Public Health Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), School of Public Health. She also has several years of experience serving as a Research Nurse Practitioner with Stokes County Health Department and Research Triangle Institute. Dr. Tessaro currently serves as a Research Professor at the School of Nursing, at West Virginia University.

Dr. Tessaro has extensive research experience in health promotion, nutrition programs, and barriers and predictors of colorectal cancer screening programs. Much of her research has focused on Appalachian populations, low-income women, and public health nurses, with notable publication venues including Cancer, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the American Journal of Health Behavior, the Journal of Cancer Survivorship, the Journal of Womenʼs Health and Public Health Nursing.

Among her numerous research activities, Dr. Tessaro has served as Principal Investigator on research projects with the Prevention Research Center and the American Cancer Society, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has also served as Co- Investigator on several research projects, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Center for Child Health and Development, and the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Tessaro has also published multiple technical reports on topics including public health nursing practices regarding colorectal cancer, and maternal health outreach.

Dr. Tessaro has presented her research findings at numerous peer-reviewed professional conferences, including the 3rd National Prevention Summit, the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, the 15th National Conference on Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, and the State of the Science in Nursing Science Conference. Along with her research experience, Dr. Tessaro has also served on several academic committees, including with the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education and Curriculum in Public Health Nursing at the School of Public Health, UNC-CH. She has also taught coursework at the graduate level in courses including qualitative research methods and intervention design for health promotion programs.

Dr. Tessaro received her Doctor of Public Health with emphasis in health behavior and health education, and a Master of Science in nursing from the UNC-CH School of Nursing. She also received a Master of Arts in anthropology from the State University of New York at Albany, and her Bachelor of Science in nursing from Utah State University. In addition, Dr. Tessaro completed her postdoctoral fellowship with the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at UNC-CH.