Ladda Thiamwong, an assistant professor of nursing, has been honored by the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence as a Distinguished Educator in Gerontological Nursing. She is among 33 nurse educators from around the world in the inaugural class who were honored for their commitment to gerontological nursing education and the care of older adults.
An aging expert with 15 years of experience in gerontological nursing education, Thiamwong has spent most of her career and research on healthy aging, fall prevention in older adults and aging education. Her research has been published and presented both nationally and internationally.
At the UCF College of Nursing, Thiamwong is the lead developer of a physio-feedback exercise education program that seeks to improve balance performance and reduce the fear of falling in ethnically diverse older adults. Additionally, Thiamwong is part of a team using simulation technology with nursing undergraduate students to enhance students’ empathy toward older adults.
In her native Thailand, Thiamwong developed a healthy aging model and fall risk assessment test for community-dwelling older adults. Additionally, she was the founding chair of a multidisciplinary research group focused on rural older adult health and a co-investigator on several projects funded by the National Research Council of Thailand.
Currently, she is co-investigator on a $1.5 million funded study from the National Institute on Aging studying the adaptation of brain and body responses to perturbations during gait in young and older adults.
Actively engaged in the gerontological nursing education community, Thiamwong is a member of the Gerontological Society of America, a reviewer for 11 peer-reviewed professional journals and has served as a reviewer for the World Congress of the International Association of Gerontology. She joined UCF in 2016, and previously was an assistant professor in the Department of Nursing at Henderson State University in Arkansas.
