Dr. Loureen Downes is a professor and the founding program director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program at Florida Gulf Coast University. She is a board-certified family nurse practitioner specializing in lifestyle behaviors and chronic disease prevention. She has over 35 years of nursing experience in a variety of clinical settings, including primary health care, emergency department, cardiac rehabilitation, critical care and cardiac catheterization, including 24 years of experience in nursing education. Dr. Downes maintains a clinical practice as a primary care nurse practitioner.

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. She developed an instrument Motivators and Barriers of Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale which has been used nationally and internationally. She is the author of several peer-reviewed articles and has presented regionally, nationally and internationally at professional conferences on topics related to lifestyle behaviors.