April J. Ancheta, PhD, RN (pronouns she/her/hers) is a fellow in the Penn Medicine National Clinician Scholars Program and a fellow in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Postdoctoral Fellowship for Academic Diversity. She is also an Affiliate Trainee at CHOP’s PolicyLab, a Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) fellow, and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Health Policy Research through Penn. Dr. Ancheta is interested in understanding the impacts of social and school-based policies on violence victimization and weight-related health disparities among sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents. Dr. Ancheta is particularly interested in the impacts of LGBTQ-positive school climate and state-level anti-discrimination policies on adolescent experiences. Her postdoctoral work aims to expand understanding of the health care and school experiences of SGM adolescents at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities and to explore the role school nurses play in care delivery. The overarching goal is to build foundational information on knowledge, attitudes, and practices of school nurses and SGM adolescents in the U.S. that can eventually inform future school-based interventions to reduce health disparities.
Dr. Ancheta obtained her PhD in Nursing from the Columbia University School of Nursing and her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from Rutgers University. She has previously worked clinically in inpatient surgical care settings. Dr. Ancheta is also a previous NIH/NINR Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Research Fellow, a past Jonas Nursing Scholar, and a past Margaret E. Mahoney Fellow in Health Policy through the New York Academy of Medicine.
