Orly Tonkikh is a Heather M. Young Postdoctoral Fellow and Fulbright Scholar at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. She is mentored by Professor Heather M. Young and by Associate Professor Emeritus Elena O. Siegel. Tonkikh’s research focuses on nurse staffing and family caregiving in acute care settings for older adults.

Prior to joining the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, she was a research coordinator at the Clalit Research Institute and at the Cheryl Spencer Department of Nursing, University of Haifa, Israel. In these roles, Tonkikh was involved in data collection, management and analysis for large cohort and intervention studies that focused on functional outcomes of hospitalized older adults and patients with multiple chronic conditions and their families’ and caregivers’ education and self-care. Tonkikh’s research experience enabled her to facilitate the development of an annual graduate-level data management seminar at the Cheryl Spencer Department of Nursing.

She earned a Doctor of Philosophy Degree from the Cheryl Spencer Department of Nursing, University of Haifa, Israel. Her dissertation focused on the compatibility between nurse staffing and functional needs of hospitalized older adults. Her findings were published in leading nursing and gerontological journals including International Journal of Nursing Studies, Journal of Nursing Management, and Geriatrics and Gerontology International. She also presented at several international gerontological conferences. Tonkikh was awarded the Health Sciences Person-in-Training Award from the Gerontological Society of America. In addition, she also received an advanced studies scholarship for outstanding research students from the Cheryl Spencer Institute of Nursing Research and the Graduate Studies Authority at the University of Haifa.