Courtney H. Lyder, N.D., Sc.D., dean of the UCLA School of Nursing, is set to deliver the keynote address during the 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture at Vanderbilt University Medical Center on Monday, Jan. 20.
The lecture, entitled “To Dream Again: Lessons From My Mentors,” will be held at noon in 208 Light Hall.
In 2008 Lyder, became the first African-American male to be named dean of a U.S. nursing school. A professor of Nursing, Medicine and Public Health, he is also the executive director of the UCLA Patient Safety Institute and assistant director of the UCLA Health System.
As an international expert in gerontology, Lyder’s clinical research focuses on chronic issues that affect older adults, including pressure ulcer prevention, identifying erythema in darkly pigmented skin, wound healing, quality improvements in skilled nursing facilities and elder patient safety.
His research has helped shape the U.S. government’s position on surveying 16,000 skilled nursing facilities. Most recently, he served as the lead investigator for pressure ulcer incidence and prevalence in hospitals, which helped the government’s decision to stop paying for hospital-acquired pressure ulcers.
In 2011, he was appointed by Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius to the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research and in 2012 was presented with the National League of Nursing’s President’s Award and awarded an honorary doctorate from Saint Xavier University.
Lyder is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the New York Academy of Medicine.
The Martin Luther King Lecture is open to the public, and is presented by Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
