Nancy Redeker named the inaugural Renfield Professor of Nursing

Nancy S. Redeker, newly named as the inaugural Beatrice Renfield Term Professor of Nursing, focuses her research on sleep, sleep disorders, their consequences, and developing self-management interventions among adults who have chronic co-morbid medical conditions. The appointment is effective through June 30, 2019.

After earning an A.B. in sociology from Rutgers University, Redeker received a B.S.N. and a M.S.N. from Seton Hall University. She then attended New York University, where she graduated with her Ph.D. in nursing research and theory development. Before coming to Yale, Redeker served on the faculties of the College of Nursing, Rutgers-the State University of New Jersey, and the School of Nursing of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Redeker’s research has included studies of sleep among patients who have cardiovascular disorders, including heart failure and ischemic heart disease, and investigations of sleep in adult acute and critical care settings. She is currently the principal investigator of the Yale Center for Sleep Disturbance in Acute and Chronic Conditions, funded by the NIH National Institute of Nursing Research. The center focuses on understanding the biological and behavioral interrelationships between sleep and acute and chronic conditions and the development of bio-behavioral interventions focused on sleep disturbance. She is also director of the Yale School of Nursing’s Biobehavioral Laboratory.

The Yale professor’s work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, and the American Nurses Foundation.

Redeker has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, abstracts, and book chapters on sleep and related topics. She edited “Sleep Disorders and Sleep Promotion in Nursing Practice,” the first nursing textbook on sleep and sleep disorders. She is currently editor of Heart & Lung: The Journal of Acute and Critical Care and a member of the National Advisory Council for the NIH National Institute of Nursing Research.

Redeker is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the American Heart Association. Her awards include the Book of the Year Award from the American Journal of Nursing, the Virginia Henderson Award for Outstanding Contributions to Nursing, and the New Jersey Governor’s Merit Award for Nursing Research.

The Beatrice Renfield Term Professor of Nursing is named for Beatrice Renfield (1914-2002), a noted philanthropist who supported and was committed to nurses and the nursing profession.