Supporting Caregiving Families
Pickering focuses on elder abuse and neglect
Carolyn Pickering, PhD, RN, a noted expert in abuse and neglect of older adults and dementia family caregiving, joined Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston’s Department of Research as a professor effective August 15, 2023.
Pickering’s program of research includes four current studies with more than $13 million in funding from the National Institute on Aging. The studies explore how family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia provide care, the management of behavioral symptoms of dementia, and the detection of elder mistreatment by emergency care technicians. She is widely published on related topics, serves as a reviewer on several journals, and is a member of the editorial board for Journal of Gerontological Nursing.
“From management of the Harris County Long-term Care Ombudsman program to the creation of our Smart Apartment to test aging-in-place technology, Cizik School of Nursing has a long history of innovation with regard to caring for our aging population,” said Associate Dean for Research Constance Johnson, PhD, MS, RN, FAAN. “We are delighted for Dr. Pickering to leverage these resources and excited about the synergistic opportunities that lie ahead.”
Before moving to Houston, Pickering had served as an associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing since 2020. She also spent several years at UT Health San Antonio as an assistant professor and co-director of the Caring for the Caregiver Program, and as a nurse scientist with the South Texas Veterans Health Care System. She previously taught at Michigan State University.
Pickering earned a PhD and Master of Science in Nursing from the University of California, Los Angeles and a certificate in forensic nursing from University of California’s Riverside extension. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Delaware.
Her husband, Andrew Pickering, PhD, a molecular biologist studying neurogenerative diseases and the role of proteostasis in aging, also came to UTHealth Houston as an associate professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.
