Dr. Kaye Herth, PhD, RN, FAAN

Dr. Kaye Herth is a RN-BSN graduate of NIU and a former NIU School of Nursing faculty member. Her high quality education and faculty experiences at NIU were instrumental in her clinical and research trajectory. She has extensive clinical, teaching and administrative experience at several universities and in hospitals, hospices and community health settings. Dr. Herth is highly respected for her work in therapeutic humor and is recognized as an international scholar on hope. Her pioneering research has focused on hope in those individuals with a chronic or terminal illness and the impact on their family/significant others, as well as on homeless families and children. Dr. Herth’s instruments to measure hope are used throughout the world and have been translated into twenty-eight foreign languages and included in seven major instrument textbooks. She has over 68 publications in referred professional journals and over 250 presentations at regional, national and international professional conferences. She has co-authored a book on hope and hopelessness, and has published chapters in ten major nursing texts addressing hope, humor and grief. Dr. Herth was included in the biographical directory “_Two Thousand Outstanding Scientists of the 20th Century” and her work on hope in the terminally ill has been recognized by the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Palliative Care. She has received numerous honors and awards for her clinical work, scholarship, leadership, and professorship including her selection as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society Distinguished Lecturer, and the 2010 Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Outstanding Academic and Student Affairs Administrator. Her induction into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame in 2010 distinguished her as one of the leading scholars in nursing and healthcare. Dr. Herth currently volunteers as a nurse clinician/educator at a Free Health Care Clinic in Gainesville, GA, as a CCNE Accreditation Evaluator, and as a member/chair on thesis and dissertation committees world-wide. In addition, Dr. Herth consults with students and scholars exploring hope and therapeutic humor across the globe.