Co-Director
Dr. Buckwalter, Co-Director of the NHLP Resource Center, received her MA in Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing from the University of Iowa and a PhD in Nursing from the University of Illinois-Chicago. She is Sally Mathis Hartwig Professor in Gerontological Nursing at the University of Iowa College of Nursing.
She also is the Director of the John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, Associate Director of the Gerontological Nursing Interventions Research Center, Co-Director of the University’s Center on Aging, and holds joint appointments in the University of Iowa College of Medicine Departments of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine. She formerly served as Associate Provost for Health Sciences at the University of Iowa.
A prolific researcher of issues affecting the elderly, Dr. Buckwalter’s work has focused on improving mental health services and providing community-based care for chronically ill older persons. Her specific clinical and research interests are in the area of geriatric mental health. Dr. Buckwalter’s research has been funded by several branches of the NIH, including the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Nursing Research, and the National Institute of Mental Health, as well as numerous private foundations.
She has written extensively in the field of gerontology, authoring over 250 articles and 80 chapters, and has edited eight books. Among these books are Health promotion and disease prevention in the older adult: Interventions and recommendations, Swanson, E. A., Tripp-Reimer, T., & Buckwalter, K. C. (Eds.). (2001), and Nursing care of older adults: Diagnosis, outcomes, and interventions, Maas, M., Buckwalter, K. C., Hardy, M., Tripp-Reimer, T., Titler, M., & Specht, J. (Eds.). (2001).
In 1999, Dr. Buckwalter received the Distinguished Contribution to Research Award from the Midwest Nursing Research Society and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine. In 2001, she was the recipient of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association Excellence in Research Award, and the first recipient of the National Gerontological Nursing Association Board of Directors Award. Currently Dr. Buckwalter serves on numerous review committees, editorial boards, and advisory groups including: the American Psychiatric Nursing Association’s Geropsychiatric/Long Term Care Council; the American Academy of Nursing Expert Panel on Aging, Long Term Care Policy Committee, the National Advisory Board for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Hartford Gerontology Project; the American Nurses Foundation Board of Trustees; the Long-Term Care Task Force and Polisher Awards Committee of the Gerontological Society of America; and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Committee on Aging.