About

Keisha McIntosh Allen is an assistant professor of teacher education and professional development at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research focuses on frameworks, practices, and policies that foster humanizing approaches to teacher learning and their relationship to educational equity in schools. Specifically, her work seeks to acknowledge the full humanity of Black teachers and students by examining how schools can be spaces that affirm the lives of Black children and their teachers. Through four inter-connected strands of research—critical multicultural teacher education, professional learning, humanizing pedagogies, and teacher diversity—Allen aims to pursue systemic changes that can transform teacher preparation and the contexts of teachers’ work. She has published in top peer-reviewed journals focused on urban and multicultural education and serves on the executive committee for English Language Arts Teacher Educators. Allen earned her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Teaching with a specialization in multicultural and urban education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and holds an MAT and Bachelor's degrees from Hampton University. Prior to her academic career, she was a high school English teacher for Fairfax County Public Schools.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Medical education
• Family medicine
• Nursing
• Environmental health
• Library science
• Psychiatry

Selected publications

• The Autonomy Toolbox: A Multicenter Collaborative to Promote Resident Autonomy

  Hospital Pediatrics · 2023 · 4 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Medicine
  • Medical education
  • Nursing

  OBJECTIVES: Autonomy is necessary for resident professional development and well-being. A recent focus on patient safety has increased supervision and decreased trainee autonomy. Few validated interventions exist to improve resident autonomy. We aimed to use quality improvement methods to increase our autonomy metric, the Resident Autonomy Score (RAS), by 25% within 1 year and sustain for 6 months. METHODS: We developed a bundled-intervention approach to improve senior resident (SR) perception of autonomy on Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) services at 5 academic children's hospitals. We surveyed SR and PHM faculty perceptions of autonomy and targeted interventions toward areas with the highest discordance. Interventions included SR and faculty development, expectation-setting huddles, and SR independent rounding. We developed a Resident Autonomy Score (RAS) index to track SR perceptions over time. RESULTS: Forty-six percent of SRs and 59% of PHM faculty completed the needs assessment survey querying how often SRs were afforded opportunities to provide autonomous medical care. Faculty and SR ratings were discordant in these domains: SR input in medical decisions, SR autonomous decision-making in straightforward cases, follow-through on SR plans, faculty feedback, SR as team leader, and level of attending oversight. The RAS increased by 19% (3.67 to 4.36) 1 month after SR and faculty professional development and before expectation-setting and independent rounding. This increase was sustained throughout the 18-month study period. CONCLUSIONS: SRs and faculty perceive discordant levels of SR autonomy. We created an adaptable autonomy toolbox that led to sustained improvement in perception of SR autonomy.

  DOI

• Addictions and Technology

  Journal of Addictions Nursing · 2021 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Library science
  • Psychology

  Karen Allen, PhD, RN, FAAN, Valparaiso University, Indiana. The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the article. Correspondence related to content to: Karen Allen, PhD, RN, FAAN, Dean, College of Nursing and Health Professions, Valparaiso University, Indiana. E-mail: [email protected]

  DOI

• Improving sexual healthcare delivery for men in prison: A nurse‐led initiative

  Journal of Clinical Nursing · 2020 · 20 citations

  • Medicine
  • Nursing
  • Family medicine

  AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The study aim was to develop and evaluate a nurse-led sexual health service and health promotion intervention for men in prison. BACKGROUND: Men in prison are particularly marginalised members of our society, negatively impacting on their ability to making healthy choices. In relation to sexual health, prison provides an opportunity for curative and preventive care, for an otherwise often hard-to-reach, priority population. DESIGN: Practice development, audit and evaluation. METHODS: Employing a practice development and participatory methodology, we empowered prison nursing staff to provide robust asymptomatic testing for sexually transmitted infections, including the management of chlamydia, with appropriate treatment and partner notification. Collaboratively with young men and nursing staff, a short animation video to promote the service was developed. A case note audit of 172 patients seen in the service during the 6-month period 1 July 2018-31 December 2018 was undertaken. The Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE, see Supplementary Material) checklist was followed. RESULTS: National outcome measures were exceeded for some clinical outcomes. During the 6-month period, there were 12 chlamydia-positive (7% positivity rate) and 3 gonorrhoea-positive results. In addition, two new cases of syphilis were detected and a further two cases of known HIV were highlighted. There were seven cases of hepatitis C (3 previously diagnosed) and three cases of hepatitis B. A short animation Dick Loves Doot was developed. CONCLUSION: Successful partnerships between sexual health and prison healthcare services, in partnership with service users, can achieve well-coordinated services and health promotion interventions. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This nurse-led model of care increased detection and early treatment of asymptomatic STIs among men in prison, impacting positively the men, their partner (s) and the public health of the society to which they return.

  DOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01HL039759

  NIH · $209k · 1993

Frequent coauthors

• Leslie M. Klevay

  University of North Dakota

  16 shared

• William Spitzer

  6 shared

• Marguerite A. Dixon

  University of Glasgow

  4 shared

• Colleen Mahoney

  Stryker (United States)

  4 shared

• Dennis L. Thombs

  University of North Texas Health Science Center

  4 shared

• Eileen L. Daniel

  AstraZeneca (United States)

  4 shared

• Erika Friedmann

  3 shared

• Jim Blascovich

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  3 shared

Labs

• Keisha McIntosh Allen Research LabPI

Awards & honors

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Maryland, Baltim…
• National Council of Teachers of English Cultivating New Voic…
• Hrabowski Innovation Fund Research Award (2021-2023)
• US Department of Education Teaching Through Coronavirus: Tow…
• Hrabowski Innovation Fund Research Award (2019-2022)

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