BRENTWOOD, Tennessee — The University of Mount Union is proud to announce that Karen Towne, Ph.D., RN, PHNA-BC, associate professor of nursing, has been named the 2026 Dissertation Award Recipient by the Midwest Nursing Research Society’s (MNRS) Population & Community Health Research & Implementation Interest Group (RIIG). She will be formally recognized on March 31, 2026, during the 50^th MNRS Annual Research Conference in St. Louis, Missouri.

Towne earned the honor for her dissertation, “The relationships between childhood experiences, disaster-related prenatal stress, and pregnancy outcomes,” which she successfully defended in 2025 while earning her Ph.D. at the University of Kansas School of Nursing. Her work examines how early life experiences and stressors related to disasters affect health during pregnancy and birth outcomes.

Towne

The Award recognizes a recent Ph.D. graduate whose dissertation is considered exceptionally meritorious within the group’s focus area. The award highlights high standards of scholarship and meaningful contributions to knowledge development that can inform clinical practice and population health initiatives.

Towne is a faculty member in Mount Union’s School of Nursing and contributes to the education of undergraduate and graduate nursing students while advancing her research agenda. In addition to her Mount Union role, she holds a postdoctoral scholar position at Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, supporting further development of her disaster-related research.

Her academic and professional credentials include a Ph.D. in nursing, board certification in public health nursing (PHNA-BC), and extensive experience in community and population health.

Learn more about Mount Union’s nursing program and its expert faculty by visiting mountunion.edu/nursing.

About the Midwest Nursing Research Society

The Midwest Nursing Research Society is a prominent nursing research organization dedicated to advancing nursing science and transforming clinical practice through high-quality research. Among its activities, MNRS supports Research & Implementation Interest Groups (RIIGs) that foster collaborations and recognize excellence in specialized areas of nursing scholarship.

Through its annual dissertation awards, MNRS highlights emerging nurse scientists whose work exemplifies rigorous inquiry and significant potential to improve health outcomes across diverse populations. The Population & Community Health RIIG specifically focuses on research that addresses health at the community and population levels, including social determinants of health and public health challenges.