Catherine Harris, PhD, RNCS
Dr. Catherine Harris, LightBridge’s Senior Consultant, formerly maintained a clinical practice at Villa Serena, San Antonio where she provided training and consultation in dementia care. In the early 80s, she pioneered respite care services for home bound caregivers, recruiting, training, and monitoring respite providers. She has led research on the bereavement experience of Alzheimer caregivers, governance in residential settings, and the effectiveness of volunteers as respite care providers. She has received two National Institutes of Mental Health Faculty Development Awards in Geriatric Mental Health and has been certified by the American Nurses Association as a Gerontologic and Adult Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist. In addition to many lectures and radio and television appearances, she led a state-wide Alzheimer training project from 1993 through 1999 in New Mexico. This project included planning and implementing six major Alzheimer conferences and producing training videos for a variety of Alzheimer care topics. With over 30 years of university teaching experience, including eighteen in Geropsychiatric nursing, plus many years of hands-on clinical work, Dr. Harris possesses first-hand knowledge of the needs of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and their families, including diverse cultural and ethnic groups, along with the needs of clinical professionals and care centers. She received her basic nursing education at the University of Kansas, Kansas City and Master’s degree in Psychiatric Nursing from University of California, San Francisco. She received her PhD from the University of New Mexico and a Graduate Certificate in Gerontology from the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. She served three years as a Lieutenant in the US Air Force.
