Four UK Faculty Inducted as American Academy of Nursing Fellows

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 19, 2015) — The American Academy of Nursing (AAN) has appointed four leaders from the University of Kentucky College of Nursing and UK HealthCare as 2015 fellows. The honor recognizes outstanding accomplishments, interdisciplinary engagement and leadership to transform America’s health care system by AAN members.

Inductee Kristin Ashford, an associate professor and assistant dean of research in the UK College of Nursing, is involved with innovative work correlating smoking with preterm birth. She is an administrator for Kentucky Giving Infants and Families Tobacco-Free Starts (GIFTS) program. She has also partnered with Kentucky Department for Public Health and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to provide wellness services with the goal of putting an end to smoking in prenatal and postpartum women across the Appalachian region.

Joining Ashford, Patricia Burkhart, a professor and associate dean of undergraduate faculty affairs in the UK College of Nursing, has worked with children and their families to self-monitor asthma symptoms to improve their quality of life. She was able to test her research through an NIH-funded project, and the results were successful. Burkhart's studies have been published in multiple nursing and medical journals. She plans to keep promoting the wellbeing of children and developing the next generation of nurse leaders who will promote healthy communities and populations.

A professor in the College of Nursing and College of Public Health, new fellow Deborah Reed has worked within the hazardous agricultural industry and is recognized internationally for her work in occupation health research. She focuses on trauma reduction and safety within agricultural populations. Reed continues to fulfill her goal to improve the quality and care of people of all ages living in the agricultural communities.

Adjunct instructor and chief information officer for UK HealthCare, inductee Cecilia Page has helped nurses embrace advances of information technology in the health care system. She created an IT toolkit that helped the translation of patient care documentation to electronic health records.

The American Academy of Nursing's approximately 2,200 fellows are nursing leaders in education, management, practice and research. They include association executives, university presidents, deans, political appointees, hospital executives and vice presidents for nursing, nurse consultants, researchers, and entrepreneurs. Academy fellows have a responsibility to contribute their time and energies to the academy, and to engage with other health leaders outside the Academy in transforming America's health system.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Adams, elizabethadams@uky.edu