Barbara Bowers

Position title: Professor Emerita, CARE Founding Director

Barbara Bowers, PhD, RN, FAAN conducts research with frail older adults in both community and residential settings. She is interested in how public policies, organizational practices and models of care delivery influence quality of care and quality of work life for caregivers. Her interest in work life quality for workers in long term care systems has led her to examine causes of staff turnover, the relationships among organizational structure, organizational culture, management practices, and care outcomes, and to explore ways to improve the effectiveness of staff development. Her work with informal caregivers at home has led to the development of tools to support caregiver decision making. Professor Bowers is the founding director of the School of Nursing’s Center for Aging Research and Education. She is currently on the boards of the Advancing Excellence in Long Term Care Collaborative, Capitol Lakes Foundation, and Metastar, and on the national steering committee of the Moving Forward Nursing Home Reform Coalition.