overview

• Dr. Elisabeth Vestal is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing. She earned her PhD in Nursing from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in 2024, where her dissertation examined barriers and facilitators to pediatric specialty care access among rural dwelling children with complex chronic conditions.She completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at MUSC College of Nursing, contributing to research focused on a self management and transition readiness for adolescents and young adults with sickle cell disease.
  Dr. Vestal's program of research aims to develop and test scalable, caregiver informed interventions that improve healthcare access and self management outcomes for adolescents and young adults with sickle cell disease and their caregivers, particularly in rural communities. Her research has been published in journals such as Pediatric Blood and Cancer, the Journal of Pediatric Nursing, and the Journal of Nursing Education.
  As a nurse, Dr. Vestal has more than 15 years of clinical experience, including emergency nursing in critical access hospitals. Her clinical background informs her research on the impact of social and structural determinants on healthcare access.