By Pareasa Rahimi
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing Professor Karen Heaton, PhD, CRNP, FNP‐BC, FAAOHN, FAAN (BSN 1981), is President-Elect of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses. AAOHN is an organization representing licensed nurses who specialize in occupational and environmental health nursing. She will assume the presidency in April 2026 and will serve a one-year term.
“Because of technological advances—just-in-time manufacturing, customer expectations and pervasive stress—the workplace in the post-COVID era is changing, along with the nature of work itself,” Heaton said. “As President of AAOHN, I will work with the Board of Directors and our administrative team to bring the most current research-based evidence, educational products based on this evidence and innovations in practice to our membership. These efforts will equip occupational health nurses to serve workforces and employers so that the workplace is as healthy as possible and employees are better equipped to manage stress and chronic health conditions. This is critical as we have learned that health and safety at work is not separate from health outside of work. I believe that I am well-equipped to lead these initiatives because of my experience at the School, living our mission daily to lead, innovate and excel in education, research and practice to promote well-being.”
During her more than 20 years of membership in AAOHN, Heaton has served on multiple committees, including the Board of Directors, and has contributed extensively to the organization’s continuing education programs. She has sustained service on the editorial board, most recently as the Associate Editor for Research for AAOHN’s flagship journal, Workplace Health and Safety. She also has served as Chair of the National Occupational Research Agenda Healthy Work Design Cross-Sector Council. In this role, she has led initiatives to identify gaps in research of healthy work design and to craft an implementation plan to address those gaps. As a result of her research and publications related to the health of commercial truck drivers, she has had opportunities to share her work through media exposure and scientific presentations at national and international conferences. Heaton served as Director of Occupational Health Nursing within the UAB School of Public Health from 2009-2012 and 2019-2023.
She also was the Program Director of the Nurse Faculty Loan Program from the Health Resources and Services Administration, which awarded the School $1.58 million for the 2022-2023 academic year—the largest NFLP funding ever awarded to the School. In 2023, she was awarded nearly $3 million in grant funding from the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety and HRSA to support educating graduate nursing students over the next five years to bring more nurses and nurse faculty into the workforce. While Heaton’s research has primarily focused on the health of long-haul truck drivers, as a recent recipient of the School’s Dean Scholar’s Award, she is studying the impact of the use of a kiosk and telehealth coaching in cardiovascular risk reduction in firefighters. The goal of Heaton’s project is to optimize hypertension and obesity management via the innovative use of technology.