Robert Pope, Sr., PhDc, RN, MSN
Robert is currently a full time doctoral student at the University of California San Francisco in the School of Physiological Nursing. He trained as a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner and was previously employed as a Clinical Nurse Educator in a Long Term Care facility in Northern California. While training as a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner at a VA hospital in California, he began seeing older vets with substance use disorders and developed an interest in understanding the basic social processes surrounding illicit drug use among older African Americans.
He is a 2004 John A. Hartford Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Scholar and is excited about the opportunity the SAMHSA Minority Fellowship offers for grounding in substance abuse and mental health.
His recent poster presentations include, “The Media and Substance Abuse in Older African Americans,” which was presented at the Gerontological Society of America’s 59th Annual Scientific Meeting, November 16 – 20, 2006, in Dallas, Texas. “The Social Construction of Older African American Street Drug Users: Allostatic Overload,” was presented at the 40th Annual Western Institute of Nursing Conference, April 12 – 14, 2007, in Portland, OR., and “A Person-Environment Perspective on Control: Implications for Aging and Cross-Cultural Research and Practice,” was presented at the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Conference, May 30 – June 1, 2007, in Yokohama, Japan with his mentor, Dr. Margaret Wallhagen. Additionally, an abstract has been submitted for symposium presentation at the 2007, Gerontological Society of America’s 60th Annual Scientific Meeting, November 16 – 20, 2007, in San Francisco, CA., titled, “Ethnicity, Culture and Chronic Illness Discourses: Challenges and Opportunities in Research with Understudied Groups.”