Karen Devereaux Melillo
PhD, A-GNP-C, FAANP, FGSA

North Andover, MA

Specialties

Gerontological

Details

Professional Achievements:

Karen Devereaux Melillo, Ph.D., A-GNP-C, FAANP, FGSA, is Professor Emerita (and former Interim Dean, 2014-2019), Solomont School of Nursing, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell. She served as the Director of the Center for Gerontology Research and Partnerships (2014 to 2021). She has previously served as Director and Chair of the School of Nursing (2013-2014), Chair (2005-2013), and Coordinator of the Adult-Gerontological Nurse Practitioner Specialty (2013-2014) and Coordinator of the Gerontological Nurse Practitioner Specialty (1985-2005).

She earned her Ph.D. from Brandeis University’s Florence Heller School for the Advanced Study of Social Welfare in 1990, where her studies focused on aging, long-term care and health policy. She received her Master of Science Degree in Gerontological Nursing from the University of Lowell in 1978, which prepared her as a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner. In 1998, she was awarded the Francis Cabot Lowell Outstanding Alumni Award for the College of Health Professions at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. In 2009, she was selected as a Fellow in the Gerontological Society of America. She was also selected as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and for the Distinguished Alumni Award from Massachusetts Bay Community College, both in 2001. Since coming to the University in 1982, she has established an active research program on the utilization of Nurse Practitioners in institutional long-term care, for which she received the American College of Health Care Administrators Long-Term Care Research Award.

Her research has focused on health promotion, specifically physical fitness and exercise activity of older adults, as well as the application of a wandering technology device for older adults with Alzheimer’s disease. She was Principal Investigator on several funded grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Health Professions, Division of Nursing, Nursing Workforce Diversity (D19HP009221, 2012-2016; D19HP08221, 2008-2012) and from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities: Workforce Development grant (2007-2014), for the Bring Diversity to Nursing project, totaling over $2.2M.

She was also Principal Investigator on a Mass. Department of Higher Education Nursing and Allied Health Grant, “Increasing Nurse Practitioner Preceptor and Faculty Capacity”, 2014-2015, and Co-Investigator on a Mass. Department of Higher Education Nursing and Allied Health Grant, “Collaborative Post-Baccalaureate Nurse Residency Program – UMass Lowell School of Nursing, Lowell General Hospital, and Genesis Healthcare”, 2015-2016. She served as Co-Investigator on a HRSA-funded Advanced Education in Nursing grant, “DNPs Caring for Underserved”, with Co-Principal Investigators, Susan Houde, Ph.D. and Angela Nannini, Ph.D., (D09HP19005-01, 2010-2013), in the amount of $732,044. She was a Co-Investigator with Jacqueline Dowling, Ph.D., PI, on a HRSA Workforce Diversity Equipment Grant, 2010-2011, “On the move for nursing’s future: Bring diversity to nursing mobile simulation laboratory”, $299,980. She was a Co-Investigator on a 5-year, $3.5M National Institutes of Health, NIOSH-funded study on “Health Disparities Among Healthcare Workers,” where she led the qualitative case study research effort in two nursing homes. She was Principal Investigator on the Mass. Department of Higher Education’s Nursing and Allied Health Initiative grant, “UMass Lowell/D’Youville Partnership in Establishing Dedicated Education Unit in a LTC Transitional Care Setting” (2011-2012).

She is currently Co-Principal Investigator on a Gerontological Society of America-funded seed grant, "Perceptions of Retired Faculty/Emeritus Professors: Enhancing Age Friendly University Principles" (2021-2022), and she serves as Co-Investigator on a Tufts Health Plan Foundation-funded project, "Age Friendly Lowell" (2020-2023).

Melillo has over 70 peer-reviewed publications. The second edition of Melillo, K.D. & Houde, S.C. (Eds.) Geropsychiatric and Mental Health Nursing (2011) received the 2011 AJN Book of the Year Award, placing first in two categories, mental health and gerontologic nursing. She is a manuscript reviewer for a number of journals, including Geriatric Nursing, and is an Editorial Advisory Board member for the Journal of Gerontological Nursing and the Journal of Professional Nursing. Nationally, she was an Objective Review Committee member for the HRSA-16-071 Advanced Education Nursing Traineeship (AENT) Program, and she has served as an Expert Panel member on the American Academy of Nursing/Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, Geropsychiatric Nursing Core Competency Workgroup and on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing/Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing’s, Transitioning to Adult-Gerontology APRN Education: Ensuring the APRN Workforce is Prepared to Care for Older Adults, NP Expert Panel.

She is active in a number of national professional associations and state task forces, and has served on local Boards, including D’Youville Life and Wellness Community. In 2021, she was appointed Chair of the Research Committee for the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (2021-2023). She is also currently on the Advisory Board for the Mass. Senior Care Foundation. She was recognized with the 2015 Excellence in Community Service Award by the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association, the 2018 Distinguished Educator in Gerontological Nursing Award, by the NHCGNE, and the 2020 Living Legend in Massachusetts Nursing Award by ANA-MA. She is Past-President of the Eta Omega Chapter, Sigma Theta Tau International. Melillo is nationally board-certified as an Adult-Gerontological Primary Care Nurse Practitioner through the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Link to Publications:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/browse/collection/49010558/?sort=date&direction=descending