Kris Weymann, Ph.D., R.N., C.N.E. (she/her)

  • Clinical Associate Professor, School of Nursing

Biography

Currently, and inspired in part by COVID disruptions/challenges in education and in nursing, I am studying if reinforcing growth mindset and brief reflection early in nursing school increases belonging, resilience, and learning, and if there are potential benefits that extend into nursing practice. 

My previous research was on understanding disrupted sleep and wakefulness associated with illness and injury, and the effects of these disruptions on recovery. My experiences as a nurse working with people following brain injury from stroke, trauma, and cancer who had persistent difficulties with fatigue, disrupted wakefulness, and disrupted sleep drive my interest to develop targeted therapies for these symptoms. I found that cytotoxic chemotherapy disrupts orexin neuropeptide signaling in the brain. This disruption was associated with decreased wakefulness and activity in rodents and replacing orexin restored activity (Weymann, K.B., Wood, L.J., Zhu, X., & Marks, D.L. (2014). A role for orexin in cytotoxic chemotherapy-induced fatigue. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 37, 84-94.). I then pursued clinical research, studying disrupted sleep in Veterans and older adults, and the effect of previous traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, and sleep apnea on sleep, functional outcomes, and quality of life.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • B.S., 1985, University of California-Davis
    • M.S., 1988, North Carolina State University
    • B.S.N., 2007, Oregon Health & Science University
    • Ph.D., 2013, Oregon Health & Science University

  • Certifications

    • Certified Nurse Educator, National League for Nursing, 2022

Areas of interest

  • Student belonging; growth mindset; transition to practice.
  • Disrupted wake-sleep; recovery from head injury; symptom management.

Publications

Selected publications

  • Weymann & Lim (2017). Sleep disturbances associated with TBI and PTSD and potential risk of neurodegeneration. Current Sleep Medicine Reports, 3 (3), 179-192. 
  • Wen, Weymann, Wood, & Wang. (2018). Inflammatory signaling in post-stroke fatigue and depression. European Neurology, 80, 138-148.
  • Balba, Elliott, Weymann, ... & Lim. (2018). Sleep disturbances in Veterans, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14 (11), 18
  • Weymann, K. B. & Rourke, J. (2021). Sleep after traumatic brain injury. Nursing Clinics of North America, 56 (2), 275-286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cnur.2021.02.006
  • Mantua, J., Helms, S. M., Weymann, K. B., & Lim, M. M. (2018). Sleep quality and emotion regulation interact to predict anxiety in Veterans with PTSD, Behavioural Neurology, https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/7940832
  • Modarres, M. H., Opel, R. A., Weymann, K. B., Lim, M. M. (2019). Strong correlation of novel sleep electroencephalography coherence markers with diagnosis and severity of posttraumatic stress disorder. Scientific Reports, 9, 4247 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-38102-4.
  • Opel, R. A., Christy, A., Boespflug, E. L., Weymann, K. B., Case, B., Pollock, J. M., Silbert, L. C., & Lim, M. M. (2019). Effects of traumatic brain injury on sleep and enlarged perivascular spaces. Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism, 39(11), 2258–2267. https://doi.org/10.1177/0271678X18791632
  • Elliott, J., Opel, R., Pleshakov, D., Rachakonda, T., Weymann, K. B., & Lim, M. M. (2020). Post-traumatic stress disorder increases odds of REM sleep behavior disorder in Veterans with and without comorbid traumatic brain injury, SLEEP, 43 (3), https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsz237
  • Yasen, A. L., Lim, M. M., Weymann, K. B., & Christie, A. D., (2020). Excitability, inhibition and neurotransmitter levels in the motor cortex of symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals following mild traumatic brain injury, Frontiers in Neurology, https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2020.00683
  • Elliott, J. E., Tinsley, C. E., Reynolds, C., Olson, R. J., Weymann, K. B., Au-Yeung, W-T. M., Wilkerson, A., Kaye, J. A., & Lim, M. M. (2022). Tunable White Light for Elders (TWLITE): A protocol demonstrating feasibility and acceptability for deployment, remote data collection, and analysis of a home-based lighting intervention in older adults. Sensors, 22 (14), 5372; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22145372

Publications