Whitney Thurman

Biography

As a nurse, Dr. Thurman’s experience focused on improving access to quality primary and behavioral healthcare for patients of Federally Qualified Health Centers in Texas. She received her MSN (2007) and PhD (2018) from the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing. Before joining the tenure track faculty at UT Austin, she spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Health Outcomes Division at the UT College of Pharmacy. Dr. Thurman is a member of the 4th cohort of the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators. 

The substantive, sustained impact of Dr. Thurman’s work focuses on supporting community-led and community-based solutions that improve health and housing outcomes among adults with disabling health conditions and lived experience of homelessness. People with disabilities are at high-risk for poor health and social outcomes due to inaccessible healthcare, housing, and educational systems and are disproportionately over represented among homeless populations. Her research is aimed at solving the need for community-based long-term services and supports for disabled adults with lived experience of homelessness. This is a critically important area given that older adults are the fastest growing sub-population of people experiencing homelessness, and current systems of care and healthcare policy were not designed to meet the needs of this structurally vulnerable population. Dr. Thurman uses community-engaged and community-based participatory research methods to advance knowledge and develop practice and policy solutions to overcome barriers to person-centered, community-based health services for this population. Visit the Thurman Lab to learn about her research.

Dr. Thurman is deeply committed to preparing the future nursing workforce through education and by providing diverse, community-based research experiences to facilitate the development of future nurse scientists. She teaches Public Health Nursing Theory (N287Q) and Disability Over the Life Course (N371) and mentors undergraduate and graduate students.