The UT Austin School of Nursing congratulates two of its faculty members for grants they were awarded in August.
Dr. Li-Chen Lin and Dr. Amanda Alvarado both received grants for projects they are working on for the state of Texas.
Dr. Lin received a $225,195 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) award through the Texas Office of the Governor.
Dr. Lin and her co-investigators, Drs. Ana Todd and Lisa Morris, will develop and implement tabletop exercises, simulations, online training modules, and a train-the-trainer models to prepare students, healthcare professionals, and community members to respond to disasters and emergency incidents. The project will also strengthen our Medical Reserve Corps unit (UTMRC) by training and preparing a sustainable volunteer workforce through the Texas Disaster Volunteer Registry.
Disaster preparedness, response, and recovery require a collective community effort. We look forward to the broad impact of Dr. Lin’s project in building and sustaining response teams and developing the qualified personnel essential for all-hazards emergency response.
"I am honored and grateful to receive this grant, which will help our community become better prepared for disasters," Dr. Lin said. "This work is deeply personal to me. I have experienced floods, a house fire that destroyed my family's home when I was a child, and a landslide that nearly took my mother's life. More recent tragedies, including the July 2025 flooding at Camp Mystic in Texas and the wildfires in Los Angeles, underscore the urgent need for preparedness and resilience. I am committed to advancing disaster readiness in our communities, and we hope this project will serve as a model that other university-based Medical Reserve Corps programs can adapt to strengthen preparedness efforts in their own communities."
Dr. Alvarado received a $459,840 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board through the Nursing Innovation Grant Program (NIGP).
Dr. Alvarado will evaluate an AI simulation platform designed to enhance communication skills among prelicensure nursing students. The platform enables students to practice essential clinical competencies with immediate feedback before entering clinical settings. This sustainable, scalable model prepares practice-ready nurses with stronger communication skills while positioning our programs to expand this innovation across nursing schools throughout Texas.
"We will assess the affect on communication confidence and competence before and after use of the program," Dr. Alvarado said. "Our goal is to allow students a safe, low-stakes environment to practice both patient facing and inter-professional communication skills that they will need to be successful nurses after graduating from the prelicensure program. We are thrilled by this investment from the state in our students and their future patients."