Kathy Richards

Kathy Richards, PhD, RN, FAAN

Recipient of Distinguished Alumni Award

Dr. Kathy Culpepper Richards received a BSN from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 1976, a MS from the University of Arizona in 1985, and a PhD in nursing from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993. She is the Ralston House Term Professor, Director of the John A. Hartford Foundation Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, and Director of the Center for Integrative Science in Aging at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and Director of the Polisher Research Institute at the Abramson Center for Jewish Life. Her program of research on sleep and cognition in older adults has improved the quality of life of vulnerable older adults. Dr. Richards has received over 12 million dollars in funding as principal investigator for her research and she is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Nursing and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.