Karen S. Lyons, PhD, FGSA, is a professor at the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. She received her bachelor's and master's in psychology from University College Dublin, Ireland, where she began her program of research on older adults. She went on to receive her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies from The Pennsylvania State University, where she specialized in gerontology and the family. Over her career, her program of research has focused on family experiences of chronic illness with particular attention to the family care dyad. Her innovative conceptual and methodological contributions to dyadic science and over two decades of family care research culminated in the Theory of Dyadic Illness Management (2018). The theory is currently being used across disciplines to study dyads in cancer, stroke, heart failure, dysphagia, dementia, and palliative care to name a few. Her body of work has been cited in almost 100 review articles and textbooks and has led to numerous, interdisciplinary and international collaborations and Fellowship in the Gerontological Society of America (2014). Her current work is focused on dyadic interventions to balance the needs of both members of the care dyad across the adult lifespan, including a current trial to examine the efficacy and feasibility of a dyadic intervention for couples living with heart failure. She has published extensively across the disciplines of gerontology, nursing, and psychology; chairs the Dyadic Research Sub-Committee in International Family Nursing Association (IFNA); and leads the Dyadic Research in Health & Illness Across the Lifespan Interest Group in the Gerontological Society of America.
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