Faculty & Staff

Kathleen F. Norr, PhD

Professor
Department of Women, Children and Family Health Science

NURS 1112
UIC College of Nursing
845 South Damen Avenue (MC 802)
Chicago, IL 60612-7350

Phone: 312.996.7940
Email: knorr@uic.edu

Research / Discovery
Kathleen F. Norr, PhD, is a health sociologist who has conducted research on health care innovations based on the World Health Organization's primary health care model in both the USA and internationally. Previous research includes AIDS prevention for low income, African-American and Latina women in Chicago, and early hospital discharge and home visiting programs for new mothers and infants in disadvantaged communities. She has developed a peer group intervention for HIV prevention, based on the primary health care model that has been successfully implemented for women in Botswana , nurses in Lithuania, and primary school teachers in Malawi. She has recently completed developing and testing a peer group intervention for HIV prevention for rural health workers, adults and adolescents in Malawi, funded by the National Institute for Nursing Research. This approach was also being expanded to urban hospital workers in Malawi, funded by the World AIDS Foundation, and to community clinic workers in Chile, funded by the Fogarty Institute. With her colleagues in Midwifery and maternal-child health, she also is currently studying the Centering Pregnancy® model of group prenatal care. Her new research will focus on integrating preconceptual health and HIV prevention for rural young women in Malawi.

Teaching / Learning
Dr. Norr has taught research methodology at the doctoral, masters, and undergraduate levels. She currently teaches advanced research design, qualitative research methods, and primary health care research methods. She is the faculty mentor for both U.S. and international doctoral students, and conducts research and publishes in collaboration with several former students. She is currently a faculty sponsor on two training grants in Health Disparities among Underserved Populations and the AIDS International Training Research Program, and serves as a Co-I on a capacity building grant for Kamuzu College of Nursing in Malawi.

Service / Practice
Dr. Norr serves on the March of Dimes Chicago Chapter Grant Review committee, and reviews for Qualitative Health Research and the Malawi Medical Journal . She has been a reviewer on several special NIH review panels for AIDS-related grants.

Current Research Projects:

• Peer groups for healthy pregnancy & HIV prevention for young Malawian women
• Reducing Disparities in Underserved Populations (co-I)
• Feeding & Transition to Home for Preterms at Social Risk (co-I)