Kathleen O'Rourke

Kathleen O'Rourke

Personal profile

About

Dr. Kathleen O'Rourke serves as the M.A. in Aging Studies Graduate Program Coordinator at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. Dr. O’Rourke has been a faculty member in the Department of Human Services and Community Leadership (formerly the School of Family and Consumer Sciences) since 2001 and is also a member of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies faculty at EIU. Dr. O’Rourke holds a Ph.D. in Family Studies with a specialization in Gerontology from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville and M.S. and B.S. degrees in Family and Consumer Sciences-Family Services from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
  
At the national level, Dr. O’Rourke has served on the Board of Directors for Kappa Omicron Nu, the leading honor society in Human Services and the Board of Directors for the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Alliance. Presently, Dr. O'Rourke serves on the Board of Directors for Sexual Assault Counseling and Information Service (SACIS) in Charleston, IL. 
 
Prior to joining the faculty at EIU, Dr. O’Rourke was employed by St. Mary's Hospital (currently Tennova Healthcare) in Knoxville, Tennessee as a Geriatric Case Manager for the Employee Assistance Program and as a Geriatric Consultant in the Division of Senior and Community Services. While at St. Mary’s, Dr. O’Rourke’s primary responsibilities included: direct care service, cognitive assessment testing, and caregiver support group facilitation in a dementia-specific adult day program; community outreach education and support for caregivers and older adults; grant writing and fund development; home-based care coordination services and living environment assessments; and development/implementation of hospital-based intergenerational programs for older adults and young children.
 
Early in her career, Dr. O’Rourke held faculty positions at The University of Tennessee as the Director of the Early Childhood PreK-Grade 3 Teacher Licensure Program and as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies and at Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tennessee as an Instructor in the Division of Family and Consumer Sciences.
 
Dr. O’Rourke’s areas of research expertise include: intergenerational programming between older adults with dementia and preschool-aged children; portrayal of older adults with dementia in popular media and children’s literature; disclosure and support for college-age women post-sexual assault; predictors and patterns of intimate partner violence; news media portrayal of campus sexual assault cases; environmental organization principles of caregiving programs for young children and for older adults; and smart home assistive technology for older adults and caregivers.

Contact Information

Office: 1044 - Klehm Hall
Phone: 2175816076
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.eiu.edu/ma_agingstudies/

Related documents

Education/Academic qualification

Human Ecology, PhD, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

… → 1999

Home Economics, MS, Eastern Illinois University

… → 1995

Home Economics, BS, Eastern Illinois University

… → 1994

Research Interests

  • Family and Consumer Sciences
  • Family Services

Disciplines

  • Family, Life Course, and Society
  • Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies
  • 7 Membership of network
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