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Dr. Teresa Hagan Thomas is an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. She also serves as the Director of Advocacy at the Family CARE Center at UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital Gynecologic Oncology Clinic. Dr. Thomas holds an undergraduate degree in anthropology and international peace studies from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor’s of nursing science and PhD in nursing research from the University of Pittsburgh.

Her program of research focuses on promoting patient self-advocacy among women with cancer. She previously developed a theoretical framework and measure to describe how individuals with cancer advocate for their needs and priorities. Dr. Thomas’s research evaluates the impact of a theoretically-based, patient-centered serious game (a motivational video game) intervention on women with advanced cancer’s self-advocacy skills, symptom burden, and use of health care services. Currently, she is conducting a multi-site randomized clinical trial assessing the efficacy of a self-advocacy serious game to improve self-advocacy skills in women newly diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer or advanced gynecologic cancer.