Professor Karen Luker
Karen Luker graduated from the University of Manchester in 1975, and worked as a health visitor in Central Manchester.
In 1977 she was awarded a Scottish Home and Health Department Research Training Fellowship.
After completing her PhD in the Social Science Faculty at the University of Edinburgh she returned in 1980 to Manchester as a lecturer and later senior lecturer in the Department of Nursing.
In 1984 Karen was a visiting professor of care research at the University of Lund Sweden, where she set up a research centre and recruited the first doctoral research students.
In 1989 Karen left the University of Manchester to take up the foundation chair of Community Nursing at the University of Liverpool, between 1992 and 1997 she was head of the School of Health Sciences at Liverpool.
In recognition of her contribution to health services and nursing research she was awarded a fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
In September 1997 Karen returned to the University of Manchester as Professor of Community Nursing and in 1999 was appointed as Head of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work.
Karen has maintained an active interest in the NHS and when in Liverpool served as a non-executive Director for Sefton Family Health Services Authority and from 1998-2002 served on Ashworth Hospital Trust Board and currently is a non executive member of Bolton, Salford and Trafford Mental Health NHS Trust.
Karen edits the Journal of Health and Social Care in the Community published by Blackwell. Her research interests concern self-care and chronic disease management in primary care.
Current funded projects are in the areas of respiratory disease and cancer, with particular emphasis on the involvement of service users in health care decisions and the evaluation of innovative forms of service delivery such as self-management plans.
Karen has served on a wide range of national research committees including MRC Health Services and Public Health Research Board, and was a member of the AMS Working Group ‘Personal data for public good: using health information in medical research’.
Karen is a member of the 2008 RAE panel for Nursing and served on the panel in 2001. She is also a member of the Health panel for the New Zealand Performance Based Review of Research.
