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Sharon S. Laing (Steele), Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Phone Number
Campus Mailbox
358421

About

Degrees

PhD
Developmental Psychology
Howard University
2005
MS
Developmental Psychology
Howard University
1998
BA, Honors
Psychology
McMaster University
1991

Dr. Laing also serves as Adjunct Associate Professor, UW Department of Health Systems and Population Health

Introduction

Sharon Laing joined the faculty of the University of Washington Tacoma (UWT) in 2015. She has held postdoctoral fellowships at Rutgers University’s Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute and University of Washington Seattle, Health Promotion Research Center, where she is currently an affiliate research investigator. Dr. Laing is the recipient of several awards and honors including a pre-doctoral award from the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Medical Research program and an American Psychological Association (APA) Dissertation research award for her work in healthcare decision-making and mammography utilization. She later received an American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), Minority Scholar award for this work.

Dr. Laing has engaged in health services research targeting cancer prevention/control and workplace wellness. She is committed to community-based health research evaluating the intersection of socio-cultural, psychologic, environmental and patient health status factors. Her current research is a multi-site effort investigating the role of mobile technology as a potential tool to facilitate patient self-management and enhanced patient-healthcare system interactions for low income communities.

Scholarly Interests

  • Community-based health promotion
  • Patient-centered outcome research
  • Social and psychological determinants of health
  • Health inequalities and disparities
  • Cancer prevention and control
  • Mobile health promotion (mHealth) 

Methodologies

  • Quantitative Research
  • Qualitative Research
  • Mixed Methods Research
  • Ecological Momentary Interventions

Teaching

  • Courses taught
    • T HLTH 215 Innovation, Wireless and Digital Healthcare
    • T HLTH 320 Promoting Health through Social Marketing
    • THLEAD 350 Critical Analysis
    • THLEAD 360 Healthcare Leadership Strategies
    • THLTH 310 Health, Illness, and Society
    • THLEAD 403 Introduction to Research in Nursing and Healthcare
    • THLEAD 480 Healthcare Leadership Fieldwork
    • T CORE 113 Introduction to Social Sciences: Mobile Technology and Healthcare Delivery
    • THLTH 290 Body’s Response to Illness and Injury
    • THLTH 490 The Art and Science of Positive Psychology
Selected Publications

Laing SS, Alsayid M, Christiansen K., Shannon Dorcy K. 2020. Technology’s role in promoting physical activity and healthy eating in working rural women: A cross-sectional quantitative analysis. Avicenna Journal of Medicine , 10:76-82

Laing SS, Ocampo P, Ocampo C, Caravalho J, Perez G et al. 2020. Provider perceptions of mHealth engagement for low-resourced, safety-net communities. Public Health Nursing 2020;00:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/phn.12811

Laing SS, Sterling R and Ocampo O. 2019. Physical activity support predicts safety-net patients’ digital healthcare engagement: Implications for patient care delivery. American Journal of Health Promotion. Doi:10.1177/0890117119894508.

O’Connor MR, Barrington WE, Buchanan D, Bustillos D, Eagen-Torkko M, Kalkbrenner A, Laing SS, Redding K, and deCastro AB. 2019. Short-term outcomes of a diversity, equity, and inclusion institute for nursing faculty. Journal of Nursing Education, 58(11):633-640

Laing SS, Alsayid M, Ocampo C, Baugh S. 2018. Mobile health technology knowledge and practices among patients of safety-net health systems in Washington State and Washington, DC. J Patient Cent Res Rev. 2018;5:204-17. doi:10.17294/2330-0698.1622

Laing SS. 2018. Affordable and Effective Health Care Might Simply Be Mobile Healthcare. Annals of Community Medicine and Practice, 4(1): 1029