UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Lisa Kitko, assistant professor of nursing, is one of five university faculty members nationwide selected by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation for the 2015 class of Macy Faculty Scholars.
The Macy Faculty Scholars program is designed to identify and nurture the careers of educational innovators in medicine and nursing. Each year, the foundation selects five faculty leaders to support in their pursuit of education reform projects at their home institutions.
Kitko was selected for her plan to develop an interdisciplinary postgraduate certificate program in palliative care. The overall goal is to expand the pool of health care providers with knowledge in basic palliative care, ultimately leading to improved care coordination and communication among providers, patients and families.
“Macy Faculty Scholars represent the future of education, and Dr. Kitko’s palliative care initiative is an example of the educational change we need to meet the public’s changing health care needs,” said Dr. George Thibault, president of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.
Kitko’s research focuses on the end-of-life needs of advanced heart failure patients and their family caregivers. In May, she was named second runner-up in the Nursing Investigator Awards session at the Second World Congress on Acute Heart Failure, presented by the European Society of Cardiology. The Penn State College of Nursing recognized her passion for and expertise in nursing education with the inaugural Janet A. Williamson Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009.
Since 1930, the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation has worked to improve health care in the United States. Founded by Kate Macy Ladd in memory of her father, the foundation supports projects that broaden and improve health professional education.