Rate My Professor Tracie Harrison

Tracie C. Harrison, PhD, RN, FAAN, FGSA, serves as Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship in the College of Nursing at the University of Iowa, joining the faculty in 2024. In this leadership role, she facilitates faculty and graduate student research and scholarship while enhancing the college's research environment. Harrison earned her PhD in Nursing with portfolios in Gerontology and Women’s Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, complemented by postdoctoral work at the same institution. She holds an MSN from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and a BSN from the University of Texas at Austin. Recognized as a leader in gerontology and adaptation to limitations, her research interests include aging, disability, gender, and cultural beliefs on aging. She has obtained federal, private, and state-level funding to support her scholarly activities.

Prior to her current position, Harrison was Professor and holder of the Alice An Loh Sun Endowed Chair in Geriatric Nursing at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She spent 18 years as tenured faculty in the School of Nursing at the University of Texas at Austin, including seven years as founding director of the Center for Excellence in Aging Services and Long-term Care. Additionally, she served as a Health & Aging Policy Fellow with the Administration on Aging and Office on Disability. Harrison's key publications include 'Exercise, functional limitations, and quality of life: A longitudinal study of persons with multiple sclerosis' (Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2006), 'Managing ethical problems in qualitative research involving vulnerable populations, using a pilot study' (International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2013), 'Marriage, impairment, and acceptance in persons with multiple sclerosis' (Western Journal of Nursing Research, 2004), 'Mental health literacy and postpartum depression: A qualitative description of views of lower income women' (Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 2014), 'An explanatory model of health promotion and quality of life for persons with post-polio syndrome' (Social Science & Medicine, 2005), and 'Health promotion for persons with disabilities: what does the literature reveal?' (Family & Community Health, 2006).