Kay Cowen is a Clinical Professor in the UNC Greensboro School of Nursing. As an educator, Ms. Cowen has made substantive, sustained and outstanding contributions at the national level to improve the nursing care of children and their families. She is co-author of Maternal & Child Nursing Care, Principles of Pediatric Nursing: Caring for Children, and Child Health Nursing: Partnering with Children & Families. These three textbooks totaling 11 book editions, provide up-to-date evidence for providing nursing care to children and their families and are used by thousands of nursing students in associate degree and baccalaureate nursing programs throughout the US and abroad. Ms. Cowen has published research related to gaming in the classroom and nursing students’ perceptions and expectations of the clinical experience. She has served as a reviewer for NLN and SPN grant proposals and abstracts and as a manuscript reviewer for several nursing journals. She currently is a co-investigator on a HRSA Maternal Child Health grant to increase the maternal child workforce. She has served on the Society of Pediatric Nurses Education Committee, Awards Task Force, and Pediatric Excellence Task Force.

Ms. Cowen received her MSN from UNC Greensboro and her BSN from East Carolina University.