CU Nursing - Spring/Summer 2022 - 28

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2 0 22 AL UMNI AS S OC I AT I ON AWA RDE E S
Lifetime Achievement
Class of 1983 PhD alumna Kristen
Swanson, PhD, RN, FAAN, is an
internationally known scholar and
theorist of Caring Science. She
is dean of the College of Nursing
at Seattle University and Chair of
the Board of Trustees of Swedish
Health System.
Her research focuses on caring,
responses to miscarriage, and interventions to promote healing
after early pregnancy loss. Swanson's caring theory has been
used to guide practice, education, and research in schools and
healthcare settings around the world. It evolved from her empirical
clinical research, which generated 5 caring processes inherent
in professional nursing practice: knowing, being with, doing for,
enabling, and maintaining belief.
Swanson previously served as Dean and Alumni Distinguished
Professor at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill School of
Nursing and Associate Chief Nursing Officer for Academic Affairs
at UNC Hospitals. She has been a visiting professor in the United
States, England, Thailand, Taiwan, Columbia, and Sweden. She is
an alumna of the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows
Program and CU Nursing. In 2020, Swanson was inducted into the
Washington State Nursing Association Hall of Fame in recognition of
her dedication to nursing and significant lifetime achievements.
CU College of Nursing | Spring/Summer 2022
Pathfinders
Jennifer Disabato, DNP,
CPNP-PC, AC, is an associate
professor at CU Nursing and
holds a joint appointment as an
associate professor of Clinical
Pediatrics at the CU School of
Medicine. Disabato graduated from
CU Nursing with her MS in 1986,
followed by her DNP in 2012.
Disabato's academic scholarship interests are in the area of Pediatric to
Adult Health Care Transition for adolescents and emerging adults with
chronic conditions. Nationally, Disabato has participated in numerous
collaborations related to adult care transition. In addition, Disabato is a
co-author of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
(NAPNAP) position statement on Pediatric to Adult Transition published
in 2020 and has represented NAPNAP at the NIH National Institutes
of Nursing Research Roundtable on Transition to Adult Care for those
with chronic conditions. In 2020 she was invited to join two national
initiatives focused on improving transition to adult care for youth with
pediatric-onset conditions: The American Academy of Pediatrics
National Coordinating Center for Epilepsy Adult Health Care Transition
Toolkit Committee and the joint American Academy of Neurology/
Child Neurology Foundation Transition Planning Advisory Committee.
Committed to promoting the role of the pediatric NP, Disabato has
served on the Board of the Colorado Rocky Mountain Chapter of
NAPNAP for several years and served as president from 2020 to 2021.
CU Nursing - Spring/Summer 2022

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