Dany Fanfan, PhD, MSN, RN

Teaching

Dr. Fanfan’s teaching responsibilities are focused on the undergraduate BSN program and the DNP program as well as mentoring undergraduate and graduate nursing students.

Research

Dr. Fanfan engages in multidisciplinary mixed-methods research dedicated to advancing our biobehavioral, cultural, and psychosocial understanding of mental health, stress, and distress symptoms among ethnic-minority and underrepresented populations. Throughout her career, she has examined the link between immigration-related factors (e.g., acculturation, migration-related stress) and mental/behavioral health outcomes among Latino and Haitian immigrants. Her post-doctoral fellowship focused on expanding her work with underrepresented populations to include Latino/Haitian rural migrant farmworkers and LGBTQ+ individuals and applying advanced research methods like community-based participatory research, social network analysis, and participatory geographical information system to examine mental and behavioral health.

With support from her NIH K23 Career Development Award, Dr. Fanfan is currently investigating how relocation-related transition, such moving from Haiti to the United States, longitudinally affect social determinant of health, the gut microbiome, individuals’ social-spatial patterns, and environmental exposures, and how these changes during the immediate post-transition period influence psychological distress and mental well-being over time during the first year after relocation to the U.S. She aims to translate this work to other types of relocation transitions among vulnerable populations across the lifespan, as these are considered critical windows during which social disconnection, stress, and altered behavioral and biological mechanisms may precipitate declines in mental health.

Service

Dr. Fanfan is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, Southern Nursing Research Society (SNRS), Haitian Studies Association, UF Postdoctoral Affairs Advisory Committee, and Edward A. Bouchet Honor Society. She presently serves as Co-Chair for the SNRS Minority Health RIG and leads a weekly writing support group at the college of nursing.

Expertise in ethnic-minority immigrant health disparities research, mental health/well-being, distress symptoms, immigration-related stress/stressors