Assistant Professor Erica Liebermann honored for innovative research on HPV vaccines, breast and cervical cancer
Honoring her critical research into women’s and population health, the Eastern Nursing Research Society has named University of Rhode Island College of Nursing Assistant Professor Erica Liebermann its 2026 recipient of the Rising Star Research Award.
The award recognizes a junior investigator who has “shown promise in establishing a program of health and/or nursing research.” Over the past five years at URI, Liebermann—a nationally and globally recognized nurse practitioner and health researcher—has established an innovative program of research focused on HPV vaccination, as well as breast and cervical cancer prevention and early detection. She has secured more than $550,000 in competitive funding as Principal Investigator, including a federal AHRQ R03 grant and the prestigious Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators, which provides $450,000 to advance her EMPOWER study.
“I am honored to have been selected as this year’s ENRS Rising Star Award recipient,” Liebermann said. “I view this award not just as a recognition of my own work as a global women’s health researcher, but as a celebration of our collective work as nurses and nurse scientists working to advance women’s health and health equity.”
Liebermann’s project focuses on improving cervical cancer screening and follow-up in primary care in Rhode Island through a women-centered, nurse-led model of patient education and management for cervical cancer screening. The goal is to improve cervical cancer health literacy and guideline-concordant care, increase access to screening and follow-up, reduce cervical cancer disparities, and ultimately advance progress toward cervical cancer elimination in Rhode Island and beyond.
In addition to her fellowship, Liebermann serves on the international “Lancet Commission on Women, Power, and Cancer,” which calls for a feminist approach to cancer care, with sex and gender a part of all cancer-related policies and guidelines. The commission seeks to eliminate gender inequality and ensure health systems, cancer workforces and research ecosystems are more inclusive and responsive to the needs of women, reducing the global burden of cancer.
Liebermann also serves on the American Cancer Society’s National Cervical Cancer Roundtable, and she chairs the Prevention, Screening, and Early Detection Workgroup for the Partnership to Reduce Cancer in Rhode Island. Her work to build community- and gender-responsive health systems that foster connection to care, improve health literacy, reduce preventable disease and improve health for all advances the URI College of Nursing’s mission to improve health and health care locally, nationally and globally, according to Dean Danny Willis.
“This award underscores both the rigor and the promise of her work to transform clinical practice and improve health outcomes,” Willis said. “She embodies our tagline: Nurse leaders transforming wellbeing and environments.”
Established in 1988 as the research arm of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Nursing Association and the New England Organization for Nursing, the ENRS is comprised of RNs and others interested in promoting nursing research. Its mission is to advance health by promoting innovative research and to “empower a diverse community of scholars dedicated to advancing nursing science.”