Faculty

Kathleen Hanson, PhD, MN

Kathleen Hanson is Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Nursing. She is a faculty member in the Systems and Practice Area of Study. Dr. Hanson received her baccalaureate in nursing from the College of Saint Teresa in Winona, Minnesota; a Master of Nursing in Community Health Nursing from the University of Washington, Seattle; and a Ph.D. in Social Foundations of Education, with emphasis on history and philosophy, from The University of Iowa.

Dr. Hanson’s primary teaching areas are the Art and Science of Nursing and Public Health Nursing. She has brought to the College an extensive career in teaching at both liberal arts colleges and more than 20 years at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Hanson’s clinical background is in public health leadership, workforce development and public health program evaluation. She currently serves on the Scott County Board of Health and is a member of the Professional Advisory Committee of the Upper Midwest Public Health Training Center. She is past president and member of the board of directors of the Visiting Nurse and Homemaker Association of Western Illinois and has served on numerous community initiatives and task forces. Dr. Hanson also facilitates the College of Nursing Partners in Care: Rural Iowa Nursing Network. This initiative is currently focused on nursing practice in the state’s critical access hospitals.

In addition, Hanson is project director of The UI Area Health Education Center (AHEC) program, a major initiative to advance Iowans’ access to health care and health education with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). She was an integral part of the team that secured a $4.5 million grant from HRSA to create centers across Iowa which will aid in the recruitment and retention of health care workers. The three UI centers focus on 33 counties south of I-80, from the Mississippi River to the Missouri River.

Dr. Hanson’s research scholarship area is the history of nursing and includes numerous journal publications as well as her newly published book Turn Backward Oh Time: the Civil War Diary of Amanda Shelton. The research for this book was supported by a grant from the State Historical Society of Iowa. She has also published in the area of home health care readmissions. She continues her research on the development of the core value of individualized care using a nursing history perspective.