UW Nurse Scientist Wins National Fellowship
An internationally-recognized nurse scientist who has created public-private partnerships to bring the latest research about common health problems to women in underserved communities has been selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow.
(PRWEB) August 9, 2001
An internationally-recognized nurse scientist who has created public-private partnerships to bring the latest research about common health problems to women in underserved communities has been selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow.
Dr. Margaret Heitkemper, Corbally Professor in Public Service and director of the Center for WomenÂ’s Health Research in the School of Nursing, is one of 20 nurses nationwide selected to this three-year program. Her award includes a grant of $30,000 to support a leadership project at the UW and will provide opportunities for leadership and educational opportunities at the national level.
Heitkemper has led an effort to bring information about migraine headaches, depression, sleep disorders, fibromyalgia and her research specialty, irritable bowel syndrome, to women throughout the Puget Sound region. According to School of Nursing Dean Nancy F. Woods, “Dr. Heitkemper has built an understanding of the bio-behavioral aspects of irritable bowel syndrome in women that has been missing from biomedicine.”
Since 1972, the Robert Wood Johnson foundation has made more than $3 billion in grants to nurse executives who are “poised to lead and shape the U. S. health care system of the future,” according to foundation officials.
In addition to her research role, Heitkemper is an award-winning teacher who chairs the Department of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Systems in the School of Nursing, the top-ranked nursing school in the country since 1984. The Center for WomenÂ’s Health Research which she also directs was the first center funded by the National Institutes of Health to focus on health problems in women.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N. J., is the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in three goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; and to promote health and reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse – tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.
