J Taylor Harden, PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN
Work Area: Dr. Harden is a gerontology nurse having a long background in
this area of specialty. Her doctoral focus was in psycho-gerontology although she is also
considered an expert in the areas of health disparities and women’s health. She is
currently the director emeritus of the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing
Excellence, a non-profit association dedicated to providing quality care to older adults
through research on aging as well as practice, policy, and leadership development. Dr.
Harden works with the National Institutes on Aging as the Chief of the Office of Special
Populations as well as the National Institute of Health addressing health disparities. She
has a long history of mentoring new and emerging nurse scientists.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Harden worked at the point of care in surgical intensive care and
in orthopedics. She served in the U.S. Air Force as a flight nurse. She has also spent time
as a nursing instructor, eventually earning tenure as a full professor. Dr. Harden has a
wide range of experience in administration and policy, serving as the Acting Deputy Director
of the National Institutes on Aging in 2008.
Contributions to Nursing: Dr. Harden has chaired or served on several
significant committees including Committee on Preventing Dementia and Cognitive Impairment
(The National Academies), The Advisory Council on Aging (National Institutes of Health), and
the Expert Panel on Aging (American Academy of Nursing).
Dr. Harden serves as an advisory board member for the Hartford/American Academy of
Nursing’s Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity initiative, Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine’s Office of Student Affairs/Office of Diversity, and Brown
University’s Program in Public Health Recruitment.
Honors: Dr. Harden has been recognized for her work, receiving the NIH
Director’s Award on three different occasions for her work on health
disparities among the aging and her role as a mentor. She was recognized as a
Distinguished Alumni at the University of Texas and has been awarded the
Outstanding Mentorship Award by the Gerontological Society of America. Dr.
Harden also received the Award of Merit from the National Institute on Aging. She
is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, the New York Academy of Medicine, and
the American Academy of Nursing.
Publications:
Harden, J. T., Phillips, J.M., & Bibb, S. (2010). Breast Cancer Biology
and Behavior in Older Women: Biobehavioral Perspectives. In Annual Review of Gerontology
& Geriatrics 20(1): 267:303.
Newman Giger, J., Davidhizar, R., Purnell, L., Harden, J.T., Phillips, J.M.,
& Strickland, O. (2007). Understanding cultural language to enhance cultural competence.
Nursing Outlook 55(4): 212-214.
Newman Giger, J., Davidhizar, R., Purnell, L., Harden, J.T., Phillips, J.M.,
& Strickland, O. (2007). American academy of nursing expert panel report: Developing
cultural competence to eliminate health disparities in ethnic minorities and other
vulnerable populations. Journal of Transcultural Nursing 18(2): 95-102.