April Hazard Vallerand earned her B.S.N. from Mount St. Mary’s College, M.S.N. from California State University, and Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania. She also held a postdoctoral fellowship in Psychosocial Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

Dr. Vallerand, College of Nursing Alumni Endowed Professor at Wayne State University has focused her research on understanding the factors that affect functional status and the barriers to improving pain management in patients with pain in a variety of settings. Her current research project, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute, focuses on improving functional status in African Americans with cancer pain.

A recognized nursing leader and scholar, Dr. Vallerand is widely published on the topic of pain management, including: the maintenance and improvement of functional status in patients with chronic pain, pain-related disparities, cancer pain management, symptom clusters in patients with cancer, pharmacological management of pain, the use of opioids in the management of chronic pain, self-treatment of pain in the community, and the perceived control and coping in patients with chronic pain.