Katherine C. Britt, PhD, MSN-IQS, RN is an NRSA Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), sponsored by the National Institute of Nursing Research (T32NR009365). An Associate Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at Penn, Dr. Britt serves as the Co-leader of the Religion, Spirituality, and Aging interest group and Junior Leader II of the Health Sciences Emerging Scholar and Professional Organization (ESPO) of the Gerontological Society of America. Her research interest focuses on identifying resilience factors (i.e., spirituality and religion) for cognitive and brain health in older adults to inform culturally inclusive spiritual interventions for persons with dementia, mild cognitive impairment, and their caregivers to slow decline and reduce disparities.

Dr. Britt completed her PhD in Nursing Science at The University of Texas at Austin and her Master of Science in Nursing in Informatics, Quality, and Safety from the University of Texas at Tyler. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Belmont University (Nashville, TN).

She was a 2021-2023 Mental Health/Psychology Jonas Scholar. During her PhD training, she completed a Certificate of Teaching in Nursing at The University of Texas at Austin. She also completed an external predoctoral fellowship with Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities on the National Consortium on Psychosocial Stress, Spirituality, and Health, studying positive and negative religious coping in stress on mental and physical health outcomes across a diverse sample including American Indians and Hispanic/Latino populations.

Dr. Britt has been a registered nurse for over 20 years, with clinical experience in critical care, rheumatology, nephrology, and gerontology. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society, Southern Nursing Research Honor Society, Gerontological Society of America, International Society of Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART), and National Hartford Center for Gerontological Nursing.

Select Publications

Britt, K.C., Richards, K. C., Acton, G., Hamilton, J., & Radhakrishnan, K. (2023). Religious attendance associations with neuropsychiatric symptoms, cognitive function, and sleep disturbances in all-cause Dementia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(5), 4300. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054300.

Britt, K.C., Kwak, J., Acton, G., Richards, K., Hamilton, J., & Radhakrishnan, K. (2022). Measures of religion and spirituality in dementia: An integrative review. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Interventions, 8(1), e12352. https://doi.org/10.1002/trc2.12352

Britt, K.C., Richards, K. C., Acton, G., Hamilton, J., & Radhakrishnan, K. (2022). Older adults with dementia: The association of private prayer with neuropsychiatric symptoms, cognition, and sleep disturbances. Religions, 13(10), 973. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13100973.

Britt, K.C., Richards, K., Radhakrishnan, K., Vanags-Louredo, A., Park, E., Gooneratne, N., & Fry, L. (2022). Religion, spirituality, and coping during the pandemic: Perspectives of dementia caregivers. Clinical Nursing Research,32(1).  https://doi.org/10.1177/10547738221115239.

Britt, K.C., Cacchione, P.Z., & Naylor, M. D. (2023, June). Faith-based organizations can support dementia caregivers in a post-pandemic world. Research in Nursing & Health, 46(3), 282–284. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.22309

Britt, K.C., & Hamilton, J. (2023, April). How can we support religious and spiritual practices of older adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment and dementia? Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 49(4), 3-5. https://doi.org/10.3928/00989134-20230309-01

Fingerman, K. L., To Ng, Y., Zhang, S., Britt, K.C., Colera, G., Birditt, K. S., & Charles, S. T. (2021). Living alone during COVID-19: Social contact and emotional well-being among older adults. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Science, 76(3), e116-e121. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaa200.