Loureen Downes, PhD APRN FNP-BC DipACLM FAANP has cultivated a long and distinguished career of education, research and clinical practice spanning the nursing and lifestyle medicine fields.  She earned her PhD in Nursing, with a dissertation subject of Motivators and Barriers of Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors, at the University of Connecticut, and her Master of Science in Nursing, with a research project on Domestic Violence, at Florida Atlantic University.  She has since 1987 practiced nursing in a variety of clinical settings, including primary health care, emergency and critical care medicine, cardiac catheterization and cardiac rehabilitation.  She maintains her Family Nurse Practitioner ANCC certification and Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner licensure as she continues primary care practice specializing in lifestyle behaviors and chronic disease prevention.

Dr. Downes serves Florida Gulf Coast University as Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and as founding Director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice / Nurse Practitioner Program.  Starting in 1996 she had previously served as an Assistant Professor at Palm Beach Community College in Florida and then at Three Rivers Community College in Connecticut.  She is also now a Director at Large, and member of the Research Special Interest Group, for the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties.  She has presented regionally, nationally and internationally at professional conferences on topics related to lifestyle behaviors.

Dr. Downes' research focuses on the prevention and management of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, with an emphasis on nutrition and physical activity, and giving attention to some special situations such as the university student environment, or community nutrition education opportunities for marginalized individuals.  She is the sole or principal author of six peer-reviewed journal articles, three research society conference proceedings abstracts and one textbook chapter.  She developed an instrument "Motivators and Barriers of Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale" that has been utilized nationally and internationally.  She has served the American College of Lifestyle Medicine as a Member Consultant and Program Facilitator for its project "Adapting the Full Plate Diet Program for an African-American Audience", and previously as the Secretary for its Advanced Practice Nurse / Registered Nurse Member Interest Group.