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Keela Herr, PhD, RN, FAAN, AGSF is Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Services
in the College of Nursing at The University of Iowa and Academic Associate, Department of
Nursing Services and Patient Care, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics in Iowa
City. Previous academic leadership positions include serving as Interim Head of the
Division of Nursing at Truman State University and as the Director of the RN-BSN Program
at the University of Iowa. She is currently Research Director for the Iowa John A.
Hartford Foundation Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, and Co-Director of the
Regional Training Core of the Gerontological Nursing Interventions Research Center. Herr
is a current Fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow Program. Dr. Herr
received her MSN degree in medical-surgical nursing with emphasis in gerontology and
education in 1977 and her PhD in nursing from the University of Texas at Austin School of
Nursing in 1986. She was employed at Northeast Missouri State University from 1977 until
1987 when she joined the faculty at the College of Nursing in Iowa City. 

Over the past 20 years, Dr. Herr has been engaged in a program of research and scholarly
and professional activities that has focused on the problem of pain in older adults. She
is currently Principal Investigator of a study funded by the National Cancer Institute
(NCI) on “Cancer Pain in Elders: Facilitating Use of Evidence Based Practices in
Hospices” and Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) on a project funded by NINR testing a
clinical algorithm for pain management in the nursing home setting. In addition, she has
conducted NIH-National Institute of Nursing Research-funded research to establish
appropriate tools for evaluating pain intensity in this population and has extended that
with a colleague to pain tool use in minority older adults. Dr. Herr was also Co-PI on
the Robert Wood Johnson funded project “Improving the Quality of End-of-Life Care in
Iowa” and provided leadership for a project that focused on establishing Pain as a 5th
Vital Sign in Iowa health care organizations as a step toward improving end of life care.
She also was Co-PI on an AHRQ-funded research project “Evidence-Based Practice: From Book
to Bedside-Acute Pain Management in the Elderly”, that examined interventions to improve
adoption of clinical practice guidelines for pain management in elders in health care
organizations.. Dr. Herr has been principal or co-investigator of 22 research projects
totaling over $11 million focused on the problem of geriatric pain. Dr. Herr presents
broadly on pain-related topics to interdisciplinary geriatric audiences across the
country and the world, and has numerous publications on the topic of geriatric pain,
including an annual handbook, Geriatrics at Your Fingertips, and is editor of a
guidebook, Improving the Lives of Older Adults with Persistent Pain: An Interdisciplinary
Guide. 

Dr. Herr is an active member of several professional organizations related to geriatric
pain, including the American Society for Pain Management Nurses (ASPMN), the American
Geriatric Society (AGS). The American Society (APS), and the International Association
for the Study of Pain (IASP). She completed service on the Board of Directors for the
American Society for Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) and the American Pain Society (APS),
and is currently serving on the Board of Directors for the American Geriatrics Society
(AGS). She served on the expert panels of the AGS to develop national clinical practice
guidelines for chronic/persistent pain management in older adults. Dr. Herr was honored
with the Nurse Exemplar Award from the ASPMN (2003) in recognition of her outstanding
contributions to the field of pain management nursing, was the recipient of the Elizabeth
Narcessian Award for Outstanding Educational Achievements in professional education in
the field of pain by the APS (2005), and received the award for Nurse Excellence in Pain
Management of the Older Adult from the ASPMN (2006). She is a Fellow in the American
Academy of Nursing and the American Geriatric Society. 

PhD in Nursing, University of Texas at Austin MSN in Medical-Surgical Nursing, University
of Texas at Austin BSN, Northeast Missouri State University 

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