Kathryn E. Barnard, RN, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Nursing and founder of the Center on Infant Mental Health and Development at the University of Washington. Her pioneering work to improve the physical and mental health outcomes of infants and young children has earned her numerous honors, including the Gustav O. Leinhard Award from the Institute of Medicine, and, from the American Academy of Nursing, both the Episteme Award, the highest honor in nursing, and the Living Legend Award, in 2006. Between 1969 and 1993 she also received 15 other major awards, including the Lucille Petry Leone Award for Teaching; the M. Scott Award for Contributions to Nursing Science, Education and Service; the Martha May Eliot Award for Leadership in Maternal-Child Health; and the Nurse Scientist of the Year Award.

Dr. Barnard has devoted her entire career to promoting understanding of the impact of the first three years of life on a child's later physical, psychological and emotional health. She is the founder of NCAST, a program providing health care workers around the globe with the first empirically proven guidelines to assess infant development and intervene with appropriate parent-child interactions. NCAST-AVENUW continues to develop research-based programs and training materials to assist professionals working with infants, young children and families.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Barnard has worked closely with Washington’s Department of Health to provide consultation and training on child health assessment, parent-child interaction and preventive health strategies. During the past five years she helped develop a testing means for identifying risk and protective factors for parenting. As director of the Washington State Plan for Nurses, she also developed the Consortium of Washington sites implementing the Nurse Family Partnership and led the effort to create a free web-based resource on pregnancy, parenting and infancy, SteppingUp, that has been recognized with a Media Award from the American Academy of Nursing (www.son.washington.edu/centers/steppingup/).

Fully tenured as a professor of nursing since 1972, the year she completed an individual Ph.D. program in the Ecology of Early Child Development, Dr. Barnard held the Charles and Gerda Spence Endowed Professorship in Nursing until her retirement in June 2006. She continues to be involved with organizations serving young children and families, including work with the Washington State First Steps program serving high risk pregnant and parenting women. She also serves on the new CIMHD Community Advisory Board.