Diana Lynn Woods, PhD, APRN-BC, FGSA, FAAN

Diana Lynn Woods, as an educator, nurse practitioner, and researcher, has focused on developing and disseminating new knowledge to strengthen humanistic care for persons with dementia. For the past 25 years, Woods work has focused on those with Alzheimer’s Disease, specifically behavioral symptoms of dementia and sleep disturbances, nonpharmacological and interventions, and understanding the biobehavioral factors, genetic, neuroendocrine and behavioral indices of stress, that contribute to BSD. Her research includes testing calming interventions for BSD, developing a heuristic model to describe biobehavioral factors, using pattern recognition methods to elucidate BSD, and identifying predictors of BSD to tailor individualized nonpharmacological interventions. Woods collaborates with colleagues in Iceland, Australia and Brazil. Her educational and activities include the development of gerontological nursing coursework for all levels of nursing students and working nurses. Her work has been disseminated in national/international scientific journals and has contributed to the development of educational strategies to foster humanistic care, clinical expertise, and to attract nursing students to doctoral study in gerontological nursing. Recent publications focus on genetic variations and ethnopharmacology, the biological basis for behavioral symptoms and sleep disturbances in dementia and the development of an ethnogerontological nursing model.