Early career Loyola Nursing scientist honored

By Ashley Rowland

Feb. 9, 2026

 

A postdoctoral research fellow at the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing is receiving a prestigious award in recognition of her career potential and “outstanding research trajectory” in nursing science.

Sueyeon Lee, who studies sleep as a health promoting behavior within cardiovascular nursing science, is the recipient of the 2026 Midwest Nursing Research Society Health Promoting Behaviors Across the Lifespan RIIG (Research Interest and Implementation Group) Early Career Award.

The honor recognizes Lee’s work on nurse-led health promotion and chronic disease management, as well as her exceptional record of scholarly productivity, said Karen Saban, the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing Endowed Chair for Research.

“Without question, Dr. Lee stands out as one of the most driven and promising early career investigators I have had the pleasure of mentoring,” Saban said. “Her work exemplifies research with high potential for translation into practice and for informing nurse-led interventions targeting health promoting behaviors.”

Lee’s research seeks to improve understanding of the complex factors—behavioral, psychosocial, and biological—that influence health behaviors and cardiometabolic risk among adults. Cardiometabolic diseases are a leading cause of death worldwide and include heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Many cardiometabolic risk factors, like obesity and high blood pressure, are at least partially preventable.

Lee said her research is grounded in her eight years of experience as a nurse in the cardiac surgery intensive care unit at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea. There, she observed that patients’ long-term cardiovascular outcomes were strongly influenced by what they did after they left the hospital—particularly their sleep, physical activity, and stress management.

Those observations, she said, sparked her interest in “understanding health behaviors as critical, modifiable determinants of cardiovascular and cardiometabolic health.”  

Lee, who has published 15 journal articles and has several under review, is the principal investigator on two grants that address chronic stress reduction interventions to improve sleep health and reduce cardiometabolic risk in underserved women.

Her research has implications for assessing health behaviors and developing interventions.

“By focusing on modifiable sleep behavior, my work can support nurses’ role in health promotion, disease prevention, and long-term self-management across clinical and community settings,” she said.

Lee joined Loyola Nursing in 2023 as part of the school’s expanding research program, which continues to climb in national rankings of nursing schools that receive research funding.

Saban said Lee exemplifies Loyola Nursing’s commitment to nurturing young nurse scientists as they build their careers.

“It’s part of our identity as a school and an R1 university,” she said.