Karen Luker - Biography#
Karen Luker graduated from the University of Manchester with a Bachelor of Nursing Degree in 1975 ,worked for two years in the NHS as a staff nurse and health visitor and then undertook a PhD at at the University of Edinburgh graduating in 1980. Her PhD was the first study to look at the outcome of health visitor visits to elderly women who lived alone at home and the findings are probably as or more relevant today as they were then. Post PhD she has held a range of academic posts as detailed. She has been successful in grant capture; her income is in the top quartile for the field. Her research work in the discipline of community nursing and cancer survivorship has policy relevance and also informs the education and training of nurses.
In 1992 Karen was appointed as the first Head of the School of Health Sciences at the University of Liverpool , the main focus of this post was to integrate four Allied Health disciplines into the university to work alongside Nursing ,Public Health ,General Practice and Clinical Psychology. In 1997 Karen returned to the University of Manchester to the Foundation Chair of Nursing.
In 1999 she was appointed as Head of the School of Nursing Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Manchester, a post she held for 15 years.
Karen is recognised as a leader in her field and has served on a wide range of research related committees and review panels. Internationally, she has served on panels for the Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian Medical/Health Research Councils. she is regularly asked by Universities to review and grade research papers in preparation for REF 2021. In 2008 she participated as one of 5 panel members (Chair Prof Roger Bouillon, University of Leuven) in a review of clinical research in three Universities (Helsinki, Gothenburg and Karolinska Institute). At the University of Lund Faculty of Medicine (2004-5) she chaired an International panel over a one year period conducting an in-depth review of Public Health, Primary Care and Caring Sciences Research culminating in a published report. She was a member of an International panel at Uppsala University Faculty of Medicine commissioned as part of a research renewal exercise in 2007 to evaluate Caring sciences/public health research. In addition she has served (2003, 2006 & 2012) on the New Zealand Peer Based Research Funding (PBRF) review panel for Health, this panel evaluates work from Nursing Allied Health Dentistry and Vet Medicine. She also served on the UK RAE panel for Nursing and Midwifery in 2001 and 2008 and REF panel 2014. Nationally she has served on a wide range of grant awarding committees the most prestigious of which was the MRC Public Health and Health Services Research Advisory Board (1997-2003). During this time she also chaired the selection committee for HSR special research training fellowships. In April 2011 she chaired an international expert panel to review research in Health Care Sciences at the Karolinska Institute, Health Care Science Research Panel, Stockholm.She is currently a member of the NIHR professorial appointments panel.
She is the founding editor of a leading International Journal now in its 27th year : Health and Social Care in the Community published by Wiley-Blackwell, listed by ISI and rated in the Top Ten Journals for Social work in the world. She is regularly invited to speak at international conferences and to serve on Chair appointment committees. In addition she advises and reviews chair applications internationally in world leading institutions most recently at Hong Kong University , Karolinska Institute and University of Auckland. She has served on a wide range of national committees involved in research capacity building in Primary Care and Nursing. Most recently she is a member of the NIHR professorial appointments panel. In addition she chaired (2004-6) the DH/NIHR committee for the award of post-doctoral and career scientist fellowships; these are highly competitive awards open to all working in health related research. She has also chaired the NIHR Clinical Academic Pathways Training Fellowship Panel for Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals resigning only to make room for the REF14 panel. She participated in a personal capacity as a member of a working group of the Academy of Medical Sciences (chaired by Professor Robert Souhami) which produced a report in 2006 on the use of personal data in medical research (Title: Personal data for public good: using health information in medical research)She was invited in 2012 to be a member of the UK Research Integrity Panel (UKRIO) Chaired by Sir Ian Kennedy.
