Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation has announced that Cecile Lengacher, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, FAPOS, has been named to the Lyle and Beatrice Thompson Nursing Professorship in Oncology. Through the professorship, Lengacher will continue to work with the oncology team to expand nursing research at SMH.

The position is part of the University of South Florida’s College of Nursing and was created in 1999 through a grant from the foundation. Developed in recognition of Beatrice’s support of Sarasota Memorial Hospital and nursing care in the Sarasota community, the professorship is responsible for “establishing a state-of-the-art clinical nursing care model to provide an environment that enhances quality of life care for persons with cancer and develop a research program that demonstrates improvement in the quality of care for these affected individuals.” 

Since 1998, Lengacher has been a member of the USF College of Nursing faculty, and currently serves as professor and director of the pre-doctoral fellowship program. For the past 21 years, she has also served as a faculty member in the Moffitt Cancer Center Outcomes and Behavioral program in the population sciences division, integrative medicine, and breast cancer clinical programs.

Lengacher previously brought her National Cancer Institute-funded study for breast cancer survivors to Sarasota, where the oncology team was able to enroll a record number of participants.