AnnuAl RepoRt - University of Alabama at Birmingham

UAB UTC Welcomes New UTC Scientist and
Forges New Partnership with UAB School of Nursing
UAB UTC leadership is pleased and gratified to be able
to announce the affiliation of Karen Heaton, RN, PhD,
an Assistant Professor of Nursing in the UAB School of
Nursing’s Department of Community Health, Outcomes,
and Systems. Dr. Heaton serves also as the Occupational
Health Nursing Program Director for the National Institute
of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) funded
Deep South Center for Occupational Safety and Health.
In her faculty practice role, Dr. Heaton serves as a Nurse
Practitioner at the City of Birmingham Occupational
Health Clinic, and has experience as a staff nurse and
nurse practitioner in emergency nursing and as a nurse
practitioner in a facility providing occupational health
services to more than 20 businesses in the Louisville,
KY area.
Dr. Heaton received her BSN from the University of Alabama
at Birmingham, an MSN degree from the University
of Louisville, a post-master’s Family Nurse Practitioner
certificate from George Washington University, and a PhD
degree in nursing from the University of Kentucky.
Between 2004 and 2007 Dr.
Heaton was recipient of a Dr. Karen Heaton
predoctoral fellowship known
as the Ruth Kirchenstein National Research Service
Award for dissertation research from the National Institute
of Nursing Research. Dr. Heaton used this research award
to complete an important study focusing on performance
actigraphy and sleep in long-haul truck drivers. She was
also named as an Honors Scholar when she received the
2009 Health Disparities Research Training Award from
the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Dr. Heaton’s appointment as a UTC Scientist coupled
with her current involvement as Co-Principal Investigator
on a UTC-driven grant proposal, along with Dr. Despina
Stavrinos, holds great promise for the UTC’s linkage with
scientists from UAB’s highly regarded School of Nursing.
Dr. Heaton’s program of research on obstructive sleep
apnea indicators and risk factors for injury and cardiovascular
disease in workers has resulted in opportunities as
invited participant to NIOSH’s Public Meeting on Survey
of Truck Driver Injury and Health, and as Consultant for
the American College of Chest Physicians’ Sleep Educator
Program.
Dr. Heaton’s research interests focus on relationships
between sleep restriction and injury risk in long haul truck
drivers; obstructive sleep apnea and cardiovascular risk
in workers; evaluating interventions that may reduce the
risks of injury and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
She has written and published on topics such as sleep and
motor vehicle crashes, identifying variables that predict
falling asleep at the wheel in long-haul truck drivers and
truck driver hours of service regulations: the collision of
policy and public health.
Specific Accomplishments 51