Karen B. Lasater

Karen B. Lasater, PhD, RN, FAAN is an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and holds the Jessie M. Scott Term Chair in Nursing and Health Policy. She is affiliated with the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI).

• Education: BSN (Quinnipiac University, 2010), MS (University of Pennsylvania, 2013), PhD (University of Pennsylvania, 2015)

Dr. Lasater’s research focuses on the impact of hospital nursing resources on patient outcomes, particularly through health services research frameworks and quantitative methods. She examines safe nurse staffing legislation, cost-effectiveness of nursing investments, and healthcare policy implications for patient safety and institutional economics.

Her recent publications highlight nurse staffing ratios, pandemic-era healthcare challenges, and sepsis management. She emphasizes exact-matched patient risk modeling to assess staffing impacts on mortality, complications, and readmissions.

• Scientific Awards: Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, Senior Fellow at LDI, SNAP Undergraduate Teaching Award (2022), Anne Keane Teaching Award (2020), AcademyHealth New Investigator Award (2019)

Dr. Lasater teaches NURS 2300: Statistics for Research and Measurement, advocating for statistical literacy in nursing. She collaborates with interdisciplinary teams across medicine, economics, and demography to inform policy decisions.