Dorothy Vittner

Dorothy Vittner is a dedicated leader with over 30 years of experience in Perinatal/Neonatal nursing that includes more than 20 years research experience focusing on the care of high-risk infants and their families. She is a process-oriented thinker, who is dedicated to innovative solutions to enhance learning and growth that upholds the personhood of the individual engaged in the learning process. Dorothy’s professional responsibilities have focused on infant neurobehavioral functioning as well as training multidisciplinary health care professionals on infant behavior and development to improve outcomes for hospitalized infants. Dorothy also has a longstanding interest in reflective process implementation to support health care professionals’ emotional well-being and functioning with repeated and prolonged stress exposure. Dorothy currently holds a position as an Assistant Professor at Fairfield University, Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies. Her research focuses on examining bio-behavioral mechanisms, specifically the role oxytocin and cortisol in modulating premature infants’ behavioral, autonomic and stress responses utilizing individualized developmental care strategies to better understand and support parent engagement.