Karen Stefaniak, PhD, RN

Assistant Professor

Karen Stefaniak received a diploma from Lakeview Memorial Hospital in Danville, Ill., in 1965, followed by a BSN from Southern Illinois University in 1967, MSN from the University of Kentucky in 1982, and PhD in Education Policy Studies and Evaluation from UK in 1998. Dr. Stefaniak retired from UK's Albert B. Chandler Hospital following 23 years of nursing leadership positions, including seven years as chief nursing officer/associate hospital director. In that role, she was responsible for nursing practice throughout the inpatient areas and hospital-based outpatient areas. Under her leadership, University of Kentucky nursing was designated Magnet by ANCC in 2001 and redesignated in 2005. Dr. Stefaniak completed the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellowship in 2006. She is certified as a nurse administrator by ANCC and certified in appreciative inquiry by the Corporation for Positive Change. Her primary leadership interests lie in collaboration, appreciative inquiry, positive deviancy and complexity science. Her clinical focus has been obstetrics, primarily in labor and delivery in the hospital and as a childbirth educator in the community.

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