CAROLINE PENNINGTON (pictured), Nurs 1918, had a lifelong admiration for ELSIE M. LAWLER, Nurs 1899, who had been superintendent of nurses at Hopkins from 1910 to 1940. At the time Ms. Pennington endowed this chair, she praised the late Ms. Lawler for her exceptional understanding and sensitivity.
Under Ms. Lawler’s administration, the push began to obtain university status for the nursing education program as an independent academic division, the School of Nursing. Ms. Pennington died in 1994. (Pictured here is Elsie Lawler.)
Held by Hae-Ra Han
HAE-RA HAN, Ph.D., MSN, RN, is the associate dean for community programs and initiatives at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.
Dr. Han’s research focuses on improving health care for traditionally underserved ethnic minority populations by improving health literacy. Her research has advanced thinking from the traditional paradigm of knowledge transfer from provider to patients to developing skills of patients to traverse the landscape of health screening and patient self-care to reduce health disparities. In particular, Dr. Han has developed and tested health literacy interventions delivered by trained community health workers that have contributed to reducing health disparities in chronic care.
In recognition of her work, Dr. Han has received numerous awards from organizations that include the Southern Nursing Research Society, the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations, the American Public Health Association, the Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus for Public Health, the League of Korean Americans, and Certificate of Congressional Recognition from U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski.
Dr. Han holds a joint appointment at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Public School of Health.
