Nancy Crego is a nurse scientist, studying health disparities, primarily focused on people diagnosed with sickle cell disease. Her clinical background includes psychiatric, adult trauma, adult critical care, pediatric intensive care, pediatric critical care transport, and pediatric cardiac intensive care nursing. She is currently a faculty member at the Duke University School of Nursing. Prior to Duke, she was faculty at the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies. Dr. Crego has conducted original research in Pediatric Sedation Safety, including nurse sedation practices and the influence of sedation provider types on adverse events during pediatric sedation. She has also examined the current state of nursing sedation regulation in the US; and made recommendations for evidence-based practice guidelines at the national level. She was on the board of the Society for Pediatric Sedation and was the only nurse member of the Pediatric Sedation Research Consortium research committee. Furthermore, she also co-chairs the Southern Nursing Research Society Health Systems and Health Policy Research Interest group. Her current work focuses on chronic illness and health disparity, particularly in healthcare utilization and cost, adherence to Hydroxyurea, and the use of opioids for pain management in adolescents and children diagnosed with Sickle Cell Disease. Dr. Crego is a primary investigator and co-investigator on several grants related to Sickle Cell Disease. She primarily uses secondary data such as repositories, electronic health records, Medicaid claims data and qualitative methods in her work. Dr. Crego earned her BSN and MSN in Nursing Administration at Barry University, and her PhD in Nursing at the University of Virginia, completing additional training in Human Factors, healthcare safety and quality improvement.