Candace W. Burton, Ph.D., RN, AFN-BC, FNAP
Director of Doctoral Education (Ph.D. and DNP); Tenured Associate Professor
Biography
Dr. Candace Burton joined UNLV Nursing in 2022 as a tenured associate professor. Prior to joining UNLV, she was faculty at the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing at the University of California, Irvine, where she created and directed the Orange County Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Education Program. Her current projects include comparative analysis of stress-related cytokines in blood and exhaled breath condensate among women affected by intimate partner violence; examining the traumatic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nursing workforce; and developing strategies to provide trauma-informed care to vulnerable populations. Dr. Burton’s innovative work has received both national and international attention from diverse audiences of advocates, researchers, and community-based providers. She practices as a forensic nurse, and her research has been funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the UCI Initiative to End Family Violence, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation among others.
Expertise
Dr. Burton is a trained qualitative and mixed methodologist, and has published on the social determinants of health, structural violence, trauma-informed care, the trauma of violence and abuse, and the development of nursing education on vulnerable populations.
Education Background
Dr. Burton earned her doctoral degree in nursing from the University of California; San Francisco in 2010, with a minor in Nursing Education. She received a post-graduate certificate in diversity and inclusion in 2019 from Cornell University and her bachelor of science in nursing in 2005 from the University of Virginia.
Research or Scholarship
Dr. Burton’s research focuses on stress and trauma, particularly in interpersonal relationships and in the context of health disparities.
Awards, Recognitions, or Group Affiliations
- Member, Nursing Network on Violence Against Women, International
- Member, International Association of Forensic Nurses
- Distinguished Fellow and Practitioner, National Academies of Practice
- Editorial Board, Journal of Forensic Nursing
- Associate Editor, Clinical Nursing Research
- Expert Panelist, Gender-Based Violence, Our Bodies Ourselves Today
- 2022, American Journal of Infection Control 2022 APIC/AJIC Award for Publication Excellence(as co-author)
- 2020, Journal of Forensic Nursing 2019 Education Article of the Year Award (as co-author)