Kathy D. Wright

PhD, APRN-CNS, FNAP, FAAN

Associate Professor

Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs Director, Center for Healthy Aging, Self-Management and Complex Care

Phone: 614-292-0309
Email: wright.2104@osu.edu
Location: 300H Heminger Hall, Columbus, OH 43210

Biography

Dr. Kathy D. Wright serves as a tenured associate professor at The Ohio State University College of Nursing Center for Healthy Aging, Self-Management, and Complex Care. She also holds a faculty position at Ohio State’s Discovery Themes: Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Brain Injury Institute.

Dr. Wright focuses on interventions that address the complex interplay of hypertension and chronic stress. Specifically, she examines strategies for reducing the risk of cognitive decline through stress management, cardiovascular risk reduction, and blood pressure control among Black/African American caregivers of individuals living with dementia. Dr. Wright has spearheaded or collaborated on NIH-funded projects nationwide, exploring topics such as self-care, hypertension, and aging.

Her current research, supported by the National Institutes on Aging and the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development-Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, highlights a mind-body intervention tailored for Black women caregivers of dementia patients. Moreover, Dr. Wright has been instrumental in pioneering the use of hair cortisol as a novel biomarker of chronic stress in Black/African American older adults. Her published protocol for culturally-tailored hair cortisol collection among Black/African American populations is widely utilized both nationally and internationally, spanning across 50 countries.

Recognized for her groundbreaking contributions, Dr. Wright was honored with the inaugural Midwest Nursing Research Society Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award (Early/Mid-Career). She has shared her research findings at prestigious venues, including a National Institutes of Nursing Research webinar and various national conferences.

Dr. Wright's impact extends beyond research. Her advocacy within the Sigma Theta Tau International Research and Scholarship Advisory Council has led to more equitable funding procedures for nurses from low-income countries. Additionally, she served as The Ohio State College of Nursing's inaugural Chief Diversity Officer, leading initiatives that garnered the college consecutive Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Awards.

Dr. Wright earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing with a major in psychology from Youngstown State University. She then completed her master’s in geriatric health and minority mental health at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University before earning her PhD from The University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Dr. Wright's research on blood pressure self-management was featured by Ohio State in a special "Minute Professor" video in July 2020. She is also a member of the Monroe Lab.

View complete list of published works in MyBibliography

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Ko, E., Rose, K.M. & Wright, K. D. (2024). Empowering dementia caregivers: Incorporating caregiving training resources into current procedural technology codes. Clinical Nurse Specialist: The International Journal for Advanced Nursing Practice. 38(2),107-109. doi: 10.1097/NUR.0000000000000803.
Anderson, C., Ardery, N., Pesut, D., Alvarez, C., Gray, T., Rose, K. M., Travers, J., Taylor, J., & Wright, K. (2023). Nurse scholars of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program. Nursing Outlook, 71(5), 102027. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2023.102027ournal of the Association for Information Science and Technology.
Kawakami, R., Wright, K., Scharre, D. W., & Ning, X. (2023). Detection of cognitive impairment from eSAGE metadata using machine learning. Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1097/WAD.0000000000000593
Woods-Giscombe, C. L., Williams, K. P., Conklin, J., Dodd, A., Bravo, L., Anderson, A., Frazier, T., Bey, G., Robinson, M. N., Jones-Warren, B., Wright, K. D., & Felix, A. S. (2023). A systematic scoping review and conceptual analysis of resilience in African American women. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 46, P107–P120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2023.04.008
Jones, L. M., Hawkins, J., Mitchell, J., Wright, K., & Cuffee, Y. (2023). Health social networks of Black women with hypertension. Nursing Research, 72(6), 489–494. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNR.0000000000000679
Anderson, A. R., Mahajan, I., Ford, J. L., Wright, K. D., Mackos, A. R., Rose, K. M., Monroe, T. B., & Moss, K. O. (2023). Dyadic hair cortisol self-collection procedure. Nursing Research, 72(5), 404–408. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNR.0000000000000672
Unudurthi, S. D., Wright, K. D., Klimpel, J. M., Sud, A., Tan, A., & Warren, J. B. (2023). Sudarshan Kriya meditation reduces substance abuse cravings and improves physical and emotional well-being of patients with opiate use disorder: A pilot study. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 61(8), 51–59. https://doi.org/10.3928/02793695-20230321-01
Wright, K. D., Alston, A. D., Lin, C. J., Cothran, F. A., Kim, B., Ford, J. L., & Williams, K. P. (Accepted on January 10, 2023. To be published in the December 2022 issue that has been delayed). A pilot study of allostatic load, the wear and tear on the body from chronic stress, in late adulthood African American women and men. Journal of the National Black Nurses Association, 33(2).
Iversen, W. L., Monroe, T. B., Atalla, S., Anderson, A. R., Cowan, R. L., Wright, K.D., Failla, M. D., & Moss, K. O. (2022). Promoting successful participation of people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in pain-related neuroimaging research studies. Frontiers in Pain Research, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpain.2022.926459
Richards, E. L., Wright, K. D., Richards Adams, I. K., Klatt, M. D., Monroe, T. B., Nguyen, C. M., & Rose, K. M. (2022). Hair cortisol concentration, perceived stress, mental well-being, and cardiovascular health in African American older adults: A pilot study. Geriatrics, 7(3), 53. https:// doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics7030053
Harmon-Still, C., Jack, A., Wright, K. D., Sattar, A., & Moore, S. (2022) A pilot study of neural processing of health information and hypertension self-management in African Americans. Nursing Research, 71(4), 303–312. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNR.0000000000000592
Hannan, J. A., Commodore-Mensah, Y., Tokieda, N., Smith, A. P., Gawlik, K. S., Murakami, L., Cooper, J., Koob, S., Wright, K.D., Cassarino, D., Arslanian-Engoren, C., & Melnyk, B. M. (2022). Improving hypertension control and cardiovascular health: An urgent call to action for nursing. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 19(1), 6–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/wvn.12560
Jones, L. M., Moss, K. O., Mitchell, J., Still, C., Hawkins, J., Tnag, E., & Wright, K. D. Senior Author. (2022). Challenges to dietary hypertension self-management as described by a sample of African American older adults. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 19(1), 64–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/wvn.12555. Author contribution: I assisted with edits to drafts and final version of this manuscript.
Moss, K. O., Wright, K.D., Tan, A., Rose, K. M., Scharre, D. W., Gure, T. R., Cowan, R. L., Failla, M. D., & Monroe, T. B. (2021). Race-related differences between and within sex to experimental thermal pain in middle and older adulthood: An exploratory pilot analysis. Frontiers in Pain Research, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpain.2021.780338. Author contribution: I assisted with edits to drafts and final version of this manuscript.
Wright, K. D., Jones, L. M., Adams, I. R., Moss, K. O., Harmon-Still, C., & Nguyen, C.M. Rose, K.M. Klatt, M (2021). Co-created health education intervention among older African American women living with hypertension. EXPLORE: The Journal of Science & Healing, 18(2), 234–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2021.02.004.
Rose, K. M., Gordon, K. C., Schlegel, E. C., McCall, M., Gao, A., Ma, M., Lenger, K. A., Wright, K. D., Ko, E., Wang, H., & Stankovic, J. (2021). Smarthealth technology study protocol to improve relationships between older adults with dementia and family caregivers. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 77(5), 2519–2529. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14714
Wright, K. D., Klatt, M., Adams, I., Nguyen, C., Mion, L., Tan, A., Monroe, T. B., Rose, K., & Scharre, D. (2021). Mindfulness in motion and dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) in hypertensive African Americans. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 69(3), 773–778. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.16947
Iversen, L., Cowan, R., Stalla, S., Engelhart, S., Gure, T., Moss, K., Scharre, D., Wright, K. D., & Monroe, T. B. (2021). Treating the most vulnerable: A discursive review of experimental pain in Alzheimer’s disease. Sage Nursing Open, 9(2), 942–949. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.922
Atalla, S., Cowan, R. L., Anderson, A. R., Dietrich, M., Iverson, L., Kalvas, L. B. A., Moss, K., Wright, K., & Monroe, T. B. (2021). Determining the impact of age and sex on the psychophysical and neurophysiological response to thermal pain across the adult lifespan. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 77(3), 1546–1555. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14514
Wright, K. D., Jack, A., Friedman, J., Jones, L. M., Sattar, A., Fresco, D., & Moore, S. M. (2020). Neural processing and perceived discrimination stress in African Americans. Nursing Research, 69(5), 331–338. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNR.0000000000000441
Moore, S. M., Musil, C. M., Jack, A. I., Alder, M. L., Fresco, D. M., Webel, A., Sattar, A., Higgins, P., & Wright, K. D. (2020). Building a research data repository for chronic condition self-management using harmonized data. Nursing Research, 69(4), 254–263. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNR.0000000000000435
Moore, S. M., Musil, C. M., Jack, A. I., Alder, M. L., Fresco, D. M., Webel, A., Wright, K. D., Sattar, A., & Higgins, P. (2019). Characterization of brain signatures to add precision to self-management health information interventions. Nursing Research, 68(2), 127–134. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNR.0000000000000331
Jones, L. M., Wright, K. D., Freidman, J., Jack, A., Fresco. D., Veinot, T., Sattar, A., & Moore, S. M. (2018). The relationships between health information behavior and neural processing in African Americans with prehypertension. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 70(9), 968–980. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24098
Harmon-Still, C., Jones, L. M., Moss, K. O., Variath, M., & Wright, K. D. Senior Author. (2018). African American older adults’ perceived use of technology for hypertension self-management. Research in Gerontological Nursing, 11(5), 249–256. https://doi.org/10.3928/19404921-20180809-02
Wright, K. D., Jones, L., Still, C., & Moss, K. (2018). Designing a cocreated intervention with African American older adults for hypertension self-management. International Journal of Hypertension, Article ID 7591289. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/7591289
Wright, K. D., Ford, J. L., Perazzo, J., Jones, L. M., Mahari, S., & Laudenslager, M. L. (2018). Collecting hair samples for hair cortisol analysis in African Americans. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 10(136), Article e57288. https://doi.org/10.3791/57288
Moss, K., Still, C., Jones, L., & Wright, K. D. Senior Author. (2018). Hypertension self-management perspectives from African American older adults. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 41(5), 667–684. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945918780331
Wright, K. D., Moore, L., Sattar, A., Josephson, R., & Moore, S. M. (2018). Does lifestyle exercise after a cardiac event improve metabolic syndrome profile in older adults? Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 33(3), E1–E9. https://doi.org/10.1097/JCN.0000000000000473
Jones, L. M., Moss, K., Wright, K. D., Rosenberg, M., & Killion, C. (2018). “Maybe this generation here can help the next generation”: Older African American women’s perceptions on information sharing to improve health in younger generations. Research in Gerontological Nursing, 11(1), 39–47. https://doi.org/10.3928/19404921-20171129-01. Author contribution: I assisted with edits to drafts and final version of this manuscript. (20% contribution)
Jones, L. M., Wright, K. D., Wallace, M. K., & Veinot, T. C. (2018). “Take an opportunity whenever you get it”: Information sharing among African-American women with hypertension. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 69(1), 168–171. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23923

Wright, K.D. Co-investigator. Integrating self-administrated cognitive testing and EHR data for accurate early cognitive impairment detection. The goal of this project is to leverage the electronic Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (eSAGE), the metadata collected during eSAGE test-taking, the rich EHR data, and advanced ML techniques to develop comprehensive ML-powered tools, which are particularly accessible to all individuals including those socioeconomic disadvantaged, AD-vulnerable populations. National Institutes on Aging R01AG082044 (Ning, X & Scharre, D. Multi-principal Investigators), 05/24 – 05/28.
Wright, K.D., Co-investigator. Development of an Online Mindfulness Training Program for Adults with Subjective Cognitive Decline. The overarching goal of this project is to rigorously test the efficacy of mindfulness training as a cognitive rehabilitation tool to mitigate age-related cognitive decline. National Institutes on Aging R61 AG081982 (Prakash, R. Principal Investigator), 05/24 – 04/27.
Wright, K.D., Co-investigator. ML-powered self-administered tool for early detection of cognitive impairment. 2023 President’s Research Excellence Program: Accelerator Grants, The Ohio State University (Ning, X. Principal Investigator), 07/23 – 06/24.
Wright, K.D., Co-Investigator. ONE ACCORD (Offering Novel Educational resources through the Aging Caregiving Collaborative of Ohio for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias). Major goals are to develop a virtual and in-person Caregiver Center to serve as a clearinghouse and hub for community-based education and research focused on healthcare providers, employers, and dementia family caregivers across Ohio. Ohio Department of Aging (Rose, K., & Happ, MB. Multi-principal Investigators), 02/23 – 12/24.
Wright, K.D., Principal Investigator. Improving stress and hypertension outcomes in African American female caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. This study will be a three-group randomized controlled trial (RCT) to determine the feasibility of Mindfulness in Motion (MIM plus the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) to improve blood pressure self-care in African American caregivers, as compared to MIM or DASH only. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program, 01/22 – 12/25.
Wright, K.D., Principal Investigator. Addressing the double jeopardy of stress and hypertension among African American female caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. This study will test a behavioral intervention (Mindfulness in Motion (MIM) plus the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)) to promote hypertension self-care in African American women caregivers of people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias. Findings from the pilot study will inform the infrastructure for a larger trial. National Institutes on Aging R21AG077069, 05/22 – 05/24.
Wright, K.D., Co-investigator. Administrative Supplement to Increase Representation in a Mindfulness Training Trial. National Institutes on Aging 3R01AG054427-05S1 (Prakash, R. Principal Investigator), 09/21 – 04/22.
Wright, K.D., Principal Investigator. Operating Under Resilience (OUR) Research Project: Stress and emotion Management for Black/African American Women with Hypertension in COVID-19 Social Distancing Society. The Ohio State University Seed Fund for Racial Justice, 01/21 – 12/21.
Wright, K.D., Principal Investigator, Brain functional connectivity and self-management in African Americans with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementia disorders and hypertension. The purpose of this study is to test feasibility, acceptably, and initial effects of a self-management intervention in African Americans with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementia disorders and hypertension to improve blood pressure and neural processing. The Ohio State University Discovery Themes-Chronic Brain Injury Pilot Grant, 01/18-12/18.
Wright, K.D., Principal Investigator, Mindfulness Attitude to Deliver Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (MAD DASH). The purpose of this study is to test a behavioral intervention and identification of the role of neurocognitive processing to improve self-management of prehypertension. NINR, Pilot study- P30 NR015326 (Moore, S.M., Principal Investigator P30 center grant), 07/14 – 08/17.
Wright, K.D., Co-investigator Brain & Hormonal Biomarkers Associated with Self-management Information Behaviors Diversity Supplement to SMART Center II Brain Behavior Connections in Self-Management Science provided salary support for postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Lenette Jones. P30 NR015326-02S1 (Moore, S.M., Principal Investigator), 08/15 – 07/16.
Wright, K.D., Principal Investigator, Understanding Chronic Stress, Allostatic Load and Health Outcomes in Low-Income Older adults. The purpose of this study is to establish the relationships among chronic stress, allostatic load and physical and mental health outcomes in African American older adults. Case/Cleveland Clinic Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career Development Award KL2 pilot funding. 07/14 – 07/16.
Wright, K.D., KL2 Awardee. Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative (CTSC) KL2 Career Development Award. The purpose of this career development award is to train interdisciplinary scholars in clinical research translation to become independent researchers. KL2 RR024990 (Davis, Principal Investigator), 07/14 – 07/17.

Kathy D. Wright

Biography

Publications

Honors

Funded research grants