AUSTIN, Texas—Dr. Tracie Harrison, assistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing, has received a $120,000 post-doctoral fellowship for research on aging with disabilities.
She is one of 24 new nurse scholars and fellows receiving grants from the John A. Hartford Foundation and the Atlantic Philanthropies’ Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Scholars Awards Program. The 13 pre-doctoral scholars and 11 post-doctoral fellows were chosen through a national competition as part of the Hartford Foundation’s initiative to build academic geriatric nursing.
Harrison will be interviewing women in the Austin area about how the timing of disability in their lives impact subsequent health as they age.
“I hope to build a theory to explain how disability as a social phenomenon impacts women’s ability to promote their health,” Harrison said. The research also is supported by the Nursing School’s Center for Health Promotion Research.
Harrison joined the faculty last year. As a university doctoral student in 2003, she was recipient of a $50,000 Hartford Foundation award for a study focusing on how women who had paralytic polio before age 12 are now aging. Those who were infected with polio during the 1950s epidemic are a perfect example of people aging with disability, Harrison said.
For her new research project, Harrison will be looking for women with any type of disability, including those who are blind, deaf or have mobility impairments and use wheel chairs.
Harrison will continue to work closely with Associate Dean of Research Alexa Stuifbergen, who specializes in promoting health for persons with chronic and disabling conditions, including multiple sclerosis, and other senior faculty. She also will be working with researchers from the University of California at Davis, the University of Washington and the University of Iowa.
For more information contact: Nancy Neff, School of Nursing, 512-471-6504.
