Mary H. Palmer, PhD, RNC, FAAN, AGSF

Professor Emerita

Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460

Dr. Palmer is Professor Emerita at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing. Prior to her retirement, she was the Helen W. and Thomas L. Umphlet Distinguished Professor in Aging from 2002 to 2021. She is the author of over 130 research papers, book chapters, and award-winning books on urinary incontinence and other lower urinary tract symptoms in older adults and women. She is the co-author of the Toileting Behaviors – Women’s Elimination Behaviors Scale (TB-WEB) that is used to quantify behaviors women use for urinary elimination and to identify behaviors that could compromise bladder health. The TB-WEB has been translated into multiple languages.

Dr. Palmer received her B.S.N. and M.S. degrees from the University of Maryland at Baltimore, her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (now JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health), and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She received her postdoctoral research training at the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Nursing Research and the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Palmer is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the Gerontological Society of America, and the American Geriatrics Society. She previously served as Chair of the Clinical Medicine Section of the Gerontological Society of America, the chair of the American Geriatrics Society Public Education Committee, Associate Editor of the Journal of American Geriatrics Society, member of the Advisory Council of the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, chair of the Steering Committee of the Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) a 9- center research consortium funded by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and member of the External Expert Panel of the Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunctions Research Network (LURN) funded by NIDDK. Dr. Palmer was the co-chair of the 6th International Consultation on Incontinence Committee on Primary Prevention, Continence Promotion, Models of Care and she was the project director of the First Quality Bladder Health Initiative at the School of Nursing.

Dr. Palmer currently serves as Associate Editor of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and she serves on the Editorial Boards of Geriatric Nursing, and Faculty of 1000 Medicine. She is a member of the 7th International Consultation on Incontinence’s Committee on Primary Prevention, Continence Promotion, Models of Care and Education.