Nationally recognized nurse researcher and gerontology professor Mary D. Naylor, PhD, RN, FAAN, will launch the inaugural Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis Lecture Series: Leading Change, Advancing Health at 4 p.m. Jan. 31 at the UC Davis Cancer Center Auditorium.

Naylor will present "Achieving High-Quality Transitional Care" and discuss her development of the Transitional Care Model, an innovative evidence-based approach to address the needs of high-risk, chronically ill elders and their family caregivers.

Naylor is the Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology and director of the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Naylor leads an interdisciplinary program of research designed to improve the quality of care, decrease unnecessary hospitalizations, and reduce healthcare costs for vulnerable community-based elders. She is also the national program director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program, Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative, which has a goal to generate, disseminate and translate research to understand how nurses contribute to quality patient care.

She was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2005. She also is a member of the RAND Health Board, the National Quality Forum Board of Directors and chairs the Board of the Long-Term Quality Alliance. Naylor also was recently appointed to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis Lecture Series brings nationally recognized leaders to the UC Davis, Sacramento campus, to illuminate academic, research and clinical topics that advance health, ignite leadership and promote bold system change.

The public is invited to attend Naylor's lecture. It is a free event with refreshments served at a reception following the lecture at the UC Davis Cancer Center Auditorium, 4051 X St. Register online at www.sonrsvp.com or call 916-734-2145. Space is limited.

For more information on the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, visit www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/nursing.