Sandra J. Picot, PhD, RN, FAAN, FGSA
Associate Professor,
Affiliate Faculty of PhD in Gerontology Program
Department of Organizational Systems
And Adult Health (OSAH)
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Sandra Picot received both her Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree in 1977and Master of Science in Nursing in 1983 from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. Afterwards, she taught at University of Virginia for 3.5 years in the Undergraduate Program. While at the University of Virginia, she developed their first Transcultural Nursing Course, which was oversubscribed at my departure in 1986.

Dr. Picot earned her PhD from the University of Maryland in 1992. Upon completion of the PhD, she moved to Cleveland, OH to teach at Case Western Reserve University (now called Case) School of Nursing for seven years (1992-1999). She relocated to the University of Maryland in 1999.  She has focused her research in two areas: (1) biopsychosocial and spiritual responses of caregivers of dependent older adults and (2) health disparities among African Americans. Biological responses include salivary cortisol, blood pressure, and heart rate. Psychosocial responses consist of both positive and negative responses of caregivers. She developed the Picot Caregiver Reward Scale that has been translated into several languages.  The major focus in her health disparities research has been to understand the multiple contributors, beyond lifestyle behaviors, to the development and progression of hypertension among African American Women. As a result, she is often consulted on the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority samples.

From the National Institute of Nursing Research, she received funding of her R01 entitled: Cardiovascular Responses of Black Female Caregivers. It was a longitudinal study of the demands, resources, perceptions, and coping responses of 202 caregivers and 205 noncaregivers over five years. Subsequently she received funding from Merck Pharmaceutical Company to study anger, salivary cortisol, and ambulatory blood pressure in African American caregivers and noncaregivers. She has authored numerous related articles and book chapters. Consequently, Dr. Picot earned recognition from her peers as Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) in 1997 and Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America in 2007.

Since 1992, Dr. Picot has taught research to students of all levels. In addition, she has cotaught Philosophy of Nursing Science and Theory and Conceptualization courses to doctoral students and Introduction to Gerontology and the Context of Health Care Delivery to undergraduate students.