Breast cancer prevention, prenatal cocaine and child outcome, women’s health, and prevention of HIV transmission from mothers to children are just some of the research interests of Chandice Covington, UND’s new dean of the College of Nursing.  Covington’s project, Proteomic Characterization of Nipple Aspirate Fluid Cancer Detection, is intended to detect and describe the proteomic “signature” of low-risk and cancerous nipple aspirates from healthy women and women diagnosed with breast cancer.  Another research project, Consequences of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure in Adolescence, evaluates the behavioral outcomes of middle-school children exposed prenatally to substances including alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, and other illicit substances.  A distinguished scholar who was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 2004, Covington has extensive teaching experience and service at various institutions, including the University of California, Los Angeles.  Covington, whose college recently won a unique grant to build the first-ever nursing-psychology research facility, is a nationally certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner.  She also has over 20 years of clinical experience in community-based primary care nursing and is nationally recognized for her expertise in this area.