Joan M. Lappe, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N.

Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss and Drs. Gilbert and Clinton Beirne Professor of Nursing
Professor of Medicine

Creighton University

Dr. Lappe is the Criss/Beirne Professor of Nursing and Professor of Medicine at Creighton University where she is a member of the research team in the Creighton Osteoporosis Research Center. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF). She is a consultant to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases National Resource Center. Dr. Lappe also serves as an ad hoc reviewer of grants for the National Institutes of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, and Skin Diseases, the National Institute of Aging and the National Institute of Nursing as well as the Department of Defense (DOD). She serves as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals. She served as a member of the Osteoporosis Technical Advisory Panel for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. On behalf of the NOF, in 2007 she testified before the US Senate Subcommittee on Defense to request funding for the DOD Bone Health and Military Readiness Program.

Dr. Lappe obtained a diploma in nursing from St. Catherine's School of Nursing in Omaha, her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), her Master of Science from Creighton University, and her Ph.D. in Nursing from UNMC.

Dr. Lappe's primary research interest is determination of the effects of nutrition and physical activity on promotion of health and prevention of disease. She was one of the first investigators to study the bone health of children and is currently the Principal Investigator at one site for an NIH-funded multicenter study to establish normative bone density in children and adolescents. She and her team have completed two large studies of stress fractures in US Military recruits. The most recent of these demonstrated that calcium and vitamin D supplementation during eight week of basic military training decreased the incidence of stress fractures by 20%. She and her team completed a landmark study, funded by the NIH, that found that vitamin D and calcium supplementation decreased the rish of cancer by 60%. She is currently recruiting for a study to determine if increasing intake of dairy foods to currently recommended levels in asolescent females will decrease the rish of overweight. Her work has been funded primarily by the NIH and the Department of Defense.