Kathleen Coen Buckwalter, PhD, RN, FAAN
Dr. Kathleen Coen Buckwalter is the Sally Mathis Hartwig Professor of Gerontological Nursing Research, at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. She is 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. Her PhD in Nursing is from the University of Illinois, Chicago.Dr. Buckwalter's research interests are in the area of geriatric mental health including care of persons with Alzheimer’s disease. Her research has been funded by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Nursing Research, and the National Institute of Mental Health, as well as numerous private foundations. In 1987, together with model developer Dr. Geri Hall, she co-authored publication of the PLST (Progressively Lowered Stress Threshold) model of dementia care in Archives of Psychiatric Nursing. Over the last 20 years, Drs. Buckwalter and Hall have implemented, tested and refined the model in a variety of home, community, acute care and long term care settings.
She has written extensively in the field of gerontology, authoring over 250 articles and 80 chapters, and has edited eight books. 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.
