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| Media contacts: Tia Webster, 404-727-5692, twebste@emory.edu |
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WHO: Kathy Parker, RN, PhD Associate Professor, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing Associate Professor, Dept. of Neurology, School of Medicine WHAT: Emory University’s Great Teacher Lecture Series WHERE: Miller-Ward Alumni House, 815 Houston Mill Rd. WHEN: Thursday, April 24, 2003, 7:30 p.m. Sleep has been called nature's great restorative. Is there any medical truth in that old saw? With over 20 years of clinical practice experience in nephrology nursing, Kathy Parker, RN, PhD, noticed the effect that sleep-related problems and sleep deprivation had on the health, well-being and quality-of-life of patients. Her interests culminated in a research career focused on investigating sleep disturbances, especially in hemodialysis patients. Dr. Parker’s work seeks to investigate sleep complaints in persons with chronic illness and the effect that sleep problems have on their well-being. Dr. Parker’s work with an interdisciplinary team of sleep researchers at Emory University has made significant contributions toward achieving an increased understanding of the important interactions among sleep, health, and illness, both in normal and clinical populations. As part of Emory’s Great Teacher Lecture Series, Dr. Parker will highlight many of these contributions as well as provide an overview of other recent scientific developments in the field of sleep and sleep disorders. Her lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 24 at the Emory Miller-Ward Alumni House, located at 815 Houston Mill Road. It is free, open to the public, and does not require reservations. Call 404-727-6000 for further information. Dr. Parker is an associate professor of adult and elder health in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and an associate professor in department of neurology, Emory University School of Medicine. While she continues to explore new arenas in her research career, she maintains an active clinical practice and is a nurse practitioner in the Emory Sleep Disorders Center. She is certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as both an adult nurse practitioner and medical/surgical clinical nurse specialist and is one of four nurses in the country certified in Clinical Sleep Disorders by the American Board of Sleep Medicine. Although Dr. Parker’s on-going research is dedicated to the sleep/wake cycle disturbances in hemodialysis patients, her general expertise in the area of sleep and sleep disorders provides her with the background to facilitate the study of sleep in other populations. She is currently working with students and other interested faculty in studying sleep in oncology, cardiac patients and during pregnancy. The Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing produces nurse leaders in practice and research. It has 35 full-time faculty, 120 affiliate faculty, and more than 5,000 alumni. Faculty and students are housed in a new $22 million, state-of-the-art facility. The school received approximately $2.6 million in 2002 in research funding and continues to grow its research agenda. The success of its research endeavors was marked recently by its ranking of fifth in the nation among peer schools in academic health centers for NIH funding, one of the clearest measures of the school’s research strengths. Also, the school recently received a $5 million gift for scholarship endowment, the largest gift in the school’s history. |