Faculty Profile of the Month: January 2009

Carol Landis honored with 2009 Distinguished Researcher award

By Ashley Wiggin

Carol Landis, whose 20-year career as a sleep researcher has yielded groundbreaking insights into the relationship between pain and sleep, is being recognized with the School of Nursing’s 2009 Distinguished Nurse Researcher award.

Carol, a professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Systems, is the director of the biobehavioral laboratories in the Center for Women’s Health and Gender Research and a past member of the research advisory board at the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute.

Carol has been recognized locally and nationally for her pioneering work in exploring connections between pain and sleep loss. She also has examined the issues

surrounding sleep disturbance in midlife women with fibromyalgia and school-age children with arthritis.

When searching for jobs after completing her post-doctorate work at the University of Chicago, Carol was drawn to the UW, in part because of  the ties she had created in her early days as a researcher. A close relationship with former faculty members Joan Shaver and the late Betty Giblin as well as current BNHS chair Margaret Heitkemper and the UW’s commitment to research were deciding factors in her decision to join the faculty in 1991 as an assistant professor. “It’s not the building or research space that you come for; it’s the people,” she said.

Carol loves the ability to work as a researcher and as a teacher through her faculty role. “It is just as important to have nursing scientists who are generating the evidence for practice as there are clinicians translating the evidence into practice,” she said. “Stepping back from practice enables you to look at the issues in a different way.”

This month, Carol will attend the AACN’s Doctoral Forum in San Diego. Her involvement in serving as chair of the school’s PhD Coordinating Committee during the past four years demonstrates her commitment to PhD education and the need for future educators. “PhD education is absolutely critical,” she said. “The advancement of nursing science is dependent on the next generation of individuals to do research and teaching.”

She lives near Carkeek Park with her partner and their three Tibetan terriers and enjoys their property and exploring her garden. “I love living in this area,” she said. “It is a beautiful place, and I am very happy being here.”

Carol received her diploma in nursing from Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing in 1965, and her master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of California, San Francisco.

To learn more about all the winners of the school’s 2009 Nursing Leadership awards,  please visit: http://www.son.washington.edu/about/2009events.asp