New York, NY (October 6, 2026) — The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation today announced nine awards from the Hillman Emergent Innovation (HEI) program. These grants advance nursing-driven, early-stage interventions designed to improve health and healthcare.
With $500,000 in total funding, the 2026 awards support bold, pre-evidence solutions across the full spectrum of care, including maternal mental health support for rural communities, emotional resilience building among vulnerable youth, and community-based pain and depression management for older adults.
“Nursing is often at the forefront of pioneering efforts to transform care,” said Ahrin Mishan, Executive Director of The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation. “From reimagining partnerships between clinicians and the community to redesigning emergency room support for young adults with disabilities, this year’s grantees are breaking new ground in pursuit of better ways of delivering care.”
Innovative Approaches to Care
The 2026 HEI awards will pilot a diverse set of programs that address significant health and healthcare inequities in new ways. This year’s recipients are:
- Improving Maternal Mental Health Through Doula Support
Poor maternal mental health outcomes among rural women are exacerbated by a combination of geographic isolation and a shortage of specialized care. In close collaboration with community partners in rural New Mexico, this project adapts the Radical Mental Health Doula framework for the perinatal period to train community doulas, expanding accessible mental health support and testing a sustainable model for narrowing health disparities.
Principal Investigator: Sharon Ruyak, PhD, CNM, FACNM, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
- In-Home Postpartum Support for Chinese Immigrant Mothers
Chinese immigrant mothers experience postpartum depression at more than twice the rate of their U.S. counterparts, yet cultural stigma, language barriers, and mistrust of healthcare systems often deter them from seeking help. Meeting the need for culturally responsive care, this project integrates the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up model into in-home postpartum care for low-income Chinese immigrant mothers to strengthen parent-infant attachment, ease postpartum distress, and create a replicable guide for public home-visiting programs.
Principal Investigator: Effy Zhiyuan Yu, PhD, RN, CNE, University of Pennsylvania
- Person-Centered Emergency Care for Young Adults with Disabilities
Young adults with disabilities are three times more likely to rely on emergency departments for routine care, yet these settings often lack tools to meet their sensory and communication needs. This project co-designs an emergency-ready Health Resume to integrate vital adaptive care information directly into nursing triage, preventing diagnostic overshadowing and promoting dignified care.
Principal Investigators: Jane Tobias, DNP, CRNP, CPNP-PC, FAAN, and Nethra Ankam, MD, Thomas Jefferson University
- Community-Based Pain and Depression Care for Older Adults
In under-resourced urban neighborhoods, older adults with chronic pain and depression often fall through the cracks of traditional clinic-based care. This nurse-delivered, home-based program, embedded within the Neighborhood Nursing model, combines tailored pain education and behavioral activation with social supports to reduce pain, ease depressive symptoms, and restore daily function.
Principal Investigators: Janiece Taylor, PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN, and Roland Thorpe, Jr., PhD, MS, Johns Hopkins University
- Inclusive Healthcare for Aging Gay Men
Aging gay men face cumulative health disparities driven by lifelong stigma, discrimination, and isolation within healthcare and aging environments. Co-designed with older gay men, this project tests the cross-national implementation of the PRIDE Model in the United States and Australia to establish an adaptable blueprint for person-centered, culturally safe care in health systems serving aging LGBTQ+ populations.
Principal Investigators: Brendan McCormack, D.Phil, BSc, FRCN, FEANS, FRCSI, PGCEA, RMN, RGN, FAAN, MAE, and Vaibhav Tyagi, PhD, MTech, BTech, The University of Sydney, in partnership with Yale University
- Strengthening Emotional Resilience for Black Youth
Acute racial stress and barriers to culturally affirming mental health care are two of a myriad of factors contributing to rising suicide rates among Black adolescents. Co-designed with Black youth, this project adapts an evidence-based self-regulation program into a social media platform led by near-peer mentors to strengthen emotional resilience and destigmatize care.
Principal Investigators: Dawn Bounds, PhD, PMHNP-BC, FAAN, and Robin Stevens, PhD, MPH, University of California, Irvine
- Language-Inclusive Support in Pediatric Cancer Care
Families with limited English proficiency navigating pediatric cancer care face steep communication barriers during high-stakes treatment decisions and discharge education. This project integrates translation-enabled earbuds into bedside workflows to support routine nursing check-ins alongside certified medical interpreters, improving comprehension, patient safety, and trust.
Principal Investigator: Micah Skeens, PhD, APRN, CPNP-PC, FAAN, Nationwide Children's Hospital
- Family-Centered Care for Perinatal Substance Use
Pregnant and parenting individuals navigating substance use frequently encounter punitive and discouraging care that jeopardizes efforts to inculcate new behaviors while preserving family dignity. This project adapts the Family-Centered Recovery and Care Toolkit in perinatal safety-net clinics, embedding trauma-informed nursing practices that support parental recovery and keep families safely together.
Principal Investigator: Kelly McGlothen-Bell, PhD, RN, IBCLC, FAWHONN, FAAN, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
- Tailored Breast Cancer Screening for Neurodivergent Women
Women with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities (ID) face severe disparities in breast cancer screening due to communication barriers and prior traumatic healthcare encounters. Co-designed with women who have ASD and ID, this project embeds tailored tools into outpatient workflows to help neurodivergent patients better prepare before imaging appointments, increasing screening completion and reducing delayed cancer diagnoses.
Principal Investigator: Anna Quon, PhD, MBA HM, BSN, RN, AMB-BC, NEA-BC, Rush University
About The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation
The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation advances bold, nursing-driven innovations that promote equitable, person-centered, and trustworthy care. It is committed to helping ignite and develop game changing interventions and cultivating a vibrant ecosystem of nurse innovators, grantees, and partners dedicated to building a healthier future for all.
For more information, please visit www.rahf.org.
Media Contact
Takouhi Mosoian, The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation (press@rahf.org)
