Roberts named the Annabel Davis Jenks Endowed Professor
Beverly Roberts, Ph.D., F.A.A.N., has been named the Annabel Davis Jenks Endowed Professor for Teaching and Research in Clinical Nursing Excellence. Roberts, a nationally known researcher on older adults and exercise, served as a nursing faculty member for 23 years at Case Western Reserve University, most recently as the Arline H. and Curtis F. Garvin Professor of Nursing.
The Annabel Davis Jenks Endowed Professorship for Teaching and Research in Clinical Nursing Excellence is in recognition of Mrs. Annabel Jenks, a committed and caring nurse who had strong connections to the College in the 1970s and 鈥�80s. This professorship was made possible by a gift to the College of Nursing from the Thomas M. and Irene B. Kirbo Charitable Trust. The Kirbo Trust donated $600,000 to establish the professorship, which was eligible for state-matching funds. Mr. Murray Jenks, a trustee of the Kirbo Trust, was the husband of the late Annabel Jenks.
Roberts has built a long program of NIH-funded research exploring factors that contribute to function and independence in daily activities, specifically exercise from a physical and psychosocial standpoint. Her most current research study examines how a low-intensity muscle strength program could aid function and recovery of elderly adults who have been hospitalized for a medical condition. She has written more than 50 books, book chapters and articles in refereed publications.
While at Case Western, she also helped garner more than $1 million in funding for programs and scholarships in geriatric nursing.
Roberts is a research and clinical practice fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and was given the Outstanding Researcher award from the Midwest Nursing Research Society in 2003. She is an abstract reviewer for the Gerontological Society of America, Sigma Theta Tau International and the Midwest Nursing Research Society.
Roberts is now a member of the UF Institute on Aging鈥檚 Executive Committee, and notes that it is collaborations such as these that attracted her to UF, she said.
鈥淭here are so many at UF with research interests in aging that align with mine, and entities like the Institute on Aging focus on bringing us together and encouraging collegiality and networking for the greater good,鈥� Roberts said. 鈥淚 am excited to further build these relationships.鈥�