Sharon Horner, PhD, RN, FAAN, Dolores V. Sands Chair; and John Lowe, PhD, RN, FAAN, Joseph Blades Centennial Professor in Nursing, at The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing, have been selected for induction into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.
The International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame recognizes nurse researchers who have achieved significant and sustained national and/or international recognition for their work and whose research has influenced the profession and the people it serves.
Dr. Horner's research focuses on improving the health of families with children. She has received approximately $3.7 million over 18 years in federal funding for her primary work with school-aged children with asthma and their families who live in rural areas. A recent study, funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, tested her intervention in a stratified randomized control trial focused on improving asthma management behaviors of parents and children and reducing asthma symptom frequency and duration, and lung inflammation. The study found significant improvements in children’s asthma-related quality of life, asthma self-management behaviors, skill in using a metered dose inhaler, and reductions in asthma severity, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits.
Dr. Horner is associate dean for Research and director of the UT Austin School of Nursing’s St. David’s Foundation Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research in Underserved Populations (CHPR), which was established in 1999 by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Nursing Research to improve the health of underserved people through applied research.
Dr. Lowe’s research uses the Talking Circle, a model of care for the prevention of substance use by Native American and other Indigenous youth. The intervention was developed by Dr. Lowe, a Native American nurse scientist, and his tribal elder Chief Henson more than 20 years ago as an essential link strengthening the chain of Indigenous experience. The intervention is undergirded by the Native Reliance theoretical framework developed by Dr. Lowe that describes the holistic worldviews, values, beliefs and behaviors characteristic of Native American culture.
Dr. Lowe serves on the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health and has been recognized as an American Academy of Nursing Edge Runner for his Talking Circle Intervention. He hopes to establish the first national and international nurse-led Native American and Indigenous research center at UT Austin, with the goal of increasing critical mass of native and Indigenous nurse scientists.
Dr. Horner and Dr. Lowe join five of their School of Nursing colleagues inducted into the Hall of Fame: Jane Dimmit Champion, PhD, DNP, FNP, AH-PMH-CNS, FAAN, FAANP; Miyong Kim, RN, PhD, FAAN, FAHA; Lynn Rew, EdD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN; Alexa K. Stuifbergen, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean of the School of Nursing; and Lorraine Walker, RN, EdD, MPH.
“These inspiring, world-renowned nurse researchers represent the staggering, collective impact of nursing and nursing research on global health care,” said Sigma President Kenneth Dion, PhD, MSN, MBA, RN, FAAN, and a UT School of Nursing alumnus. “I congratulate them on their induction into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame, and I look forward to discovering more about their research journeys and experiences.”