Excellence Recognized at the 2023 Academic Nursing Leadership Conference

At the 2023 Academic Nursing Leadership Conference (ANLC), AACN presented several awards to individuals and member institutions for their outstanding contributions to nursing education, research, and practice. The conference was held October 28-30, in Washington, DC.

Dr. Peter Buerhaus was honored with the John P. McGovern Invitational Lectureship Award. Dr. Buerhaus is a healthcare economist and professor of nursing and director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies at the College of Nursing at Montana State University. The McGovern Award honors John P. McGovern for his distinguished record of scholarship, skill, and service. Award recipients are chosen by the AACN Board of Directors based on their notable contributions to nursing, health care, or higher education.

To honor her exceptional leadership in service to AACN’s mission, Dr. Julie Sebastian was awarded Emeritus Membership. This honor is granted to institutional representatives who have retired from the deanship and to whom the honorary title emeritus has been conferred by their respective institutions. Dr. Sebastian began her AACN service in 2000 through her participation with the Executive Development Series Subcommittee. She continued to serve throughout AACN’s seminal work on the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree, first serving as a member on the Clinical Doctorate Task Force and then on the Practice Doctorate Essentials Task Force. Her service on the AACN Board of Directors started in 2008 as a member-at-large, and she rose to leadership as Chair-Elect and then Board Chair from 2016-2018, during which time she contributed to milestone initiatives that advanced AACN’s role as the voice of academic nursing.

The 2023 Lois Capps Policy Luminary Award was presented to Dr. Susan Hasmiller. This award recognizes leadership in advancing health care and the nursing profession at the federal level. Dr. Hassmiller is a national leader in nursing and has held leadership positions in some of the nation's most prominent health care organizations. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing where she holds the Living Legend status. She also has been awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal; the highest international honor given to a nurse by the International Committee of the Red Cross. During her 25 years at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, she served as the Senior Advisor for Nursing and the Senior Scholar-In-Residence/Senior Advisor to the President at the National Academy of Medicine. She assisted in leading landmark reports for the National Academy of Medicine on the Future of Nursing.

AACN member institutions also were recognized with several honors.

The Innovations in Professional Nursing Education Award recognizes pioneering initiatives launched by AACN member institutions. At the ANLC, three awards were presented:

• Private Colleges/University category: Southern New Hampshire University
• Public Colleges/Universities category: University of North Carolina Greensboro
• Academic Health Centers category: University of Rochester

The Exemplary Academic-Practice Partnership Awards are presented annually to AACN member schools and their practice partners recognizing highly productive and model academic-practice partnerships. Awards were presented to:

• Duke University School of Nursing and Duke University Health System
• University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Nursing and LeBonheur Children’s Hospital
• The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing and Jefferson County Department of Health   

The New Era for Academic Nursing Award recognizes AACN member institutions that have successfully implemented recommendations from AACN's report Advancing Healthcare Transformation: A New Era for Academic Nursing. This year’s award went to the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Cizik School of Nursing and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.