American Academy of Nursing to Honor Esteemed Leaders

Annual Awards to be Presented to Recognize Significant Contributions to Advance Health 

August 22, 2024 (Washington, DC) — The American Academy of Nursing (Academy) will recognize Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, Loretta Sweet Jemmott, Ramón Lavandero, Beverly Malone, Virginia Allen, Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, and Harriet Udin Aronow with the organization’s prestigious annual awards. These accomplished leaders will be recognized during the Academy’s Health Policy Conference, which is being held in Washington, DC on October 31 – November 2, 2024. Each awardee has demonstrated noteworthy dedication and made significant contributions to improve health care, advance health equity, and influence critical policy.

“The Academy is thrilled to pay tribute to these leaders and celebrate their incredible achievements,” said Academy President Linda D. Scott, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FADLN, FNAP, FAAN. “Recognizing the immeasurable impact of our Fellows and colleagues by bestowing these awards offers an opportunity to showcase the remarkable work done to propel the profession’s influence forward. Through their innovative care philosophies, pioneering research, and dedication to nursing, immense advancements have been made to improve public health. It is an honor to highlight how profoundly they have supported the communities they serve.”

The President’s Award, the highest individual achievement award given by the Academy, which recognizes a Fellow who has made extraordinary, lifelong contributions to improving the health of individuals, families, and communities, will be presented to Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, APRN-CNP, EBP-C, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN. Dr. Melnyk is Vice President for Health Promotion and Chief Wellness Officer at The Ohio State University and the Helene Fuld Health Trust Professor of Evidence-based Practice in the College of Nursing and Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry in the College of Medicine. Dr. Melnyk is recognized globally for her expertise, leadership, and innovation in evidence-based practice, child and adolescent mental health, clinician well-being, entrepreneurship, and intervention research as well as her innovative approaches to population health and well-being.

Loretta Sweet Jemmott, PhD, RN, FAAN will be presented with the Academy’s Civitas Award. This award recognizes an individual who exemplifies extraordinary dedication to excellence in promoting quality care. Dr. Jemmott is Vice President, Health and Health Equity in the Office of the President, and Professor at Drexel University, College of Nursing and Health Professions. She is one of the nation's foremost health promotion translational researchers in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention. Dr. Jemmott’s research has changed public policy as it relates to the use of theory-driven, culturally appropriate, evidence-based HIV/STI risk reduction interventions in community and clinical settings, which has global impact. Dr. Jemmott, a community engagement specialist, focuses her work on the promotion of health and health equity and building sustainable community partnerships meeting people where they are.

The Health Care Leader Award, which recognizes an influential national leader dedicated to improving the health of the nation through contributions to organizational excellence, will be given to Ramón Lavandero, MSN, MA, FAAN, Senior Strategic Advisor and Organizational Historian for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN Critical Care). Mr. Lavandero’s commitment to quality and safety at the organizational level is best demonstrated by his participation in developing the AACN Critical Care Standards for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments. Not only did the standards lay the foundation for a healthier work environment for nurses, they blazed the trail for how the relationship between a healthy work environment and improved patient outcomes would be studied in the future.

The Academy will present Virginia Allen, DHL, LPN, FADLN and Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, PhD, RN, FAAN, with the Lifetime Legacy Award. This award recognizes extraordinary individuals who have dedicated their life to advocating for positive health system changes.

Ms. Allen is one of the last living “Black Angels,” a name given to a group of African American nurses who bravely cared for quarantined tuberculous (TB) patients at Sea View Hospital in Staten Island, New York during the height of the TB public health crisis. Ms. Allen is an inspiring figure, a nonagenarian who maintains her nursing license, a community leader and activist. She started her career as a nurse’s aide at 16 years old working in the children’s ward at Sea View, which had the largest TB sanitarium in the region and is where the human trails for isoniazid, the treatment for TB, were conducted by the Black nurses who risked their own health to help conduct the clinical trial. Ms. Allen’s compassionate care, especially for the children in the hospital, exemplifies the human connection and understanding that nursing offers to health care.

Dr. Parse is a world-renowned nurse theorist known for her theory on Humanbecoming and currently serves as a Visiting Scholar and Research Professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton, Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences. She is also the founder and editor of Nursing Science Quarterly. Dr. Parse’s Humanbecoming theory has shaped over 100 health policies related to patient-centered care nationally and internationally. The Humanbecoming paradigm explores the ethics and tenets of human dignity, and led to teaching-learning, mentoring, leading-following, community, family, and concept-inventing models that are used worldwide. Dr. Parse has made outstanding contributions to the nursing profession through her progressive leadership in nursing knowledge development, research, education, and practice.

Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN will be presented with the Mary Elizabeth Carnegie Leadership in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity (EDI) Award. The Mary Elizabeth Carnegie Leadership in EDI Award was established in 2023 during the Academy’s 50th anniversary year to recognize a Fellow whose significant and sustained contributions have advanced the organization’s core values of equity, diversity, and inclusivity in nursing and health care. Dr. Malone is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National League for Nursing (NLN). Under Dr. Malone’s leadership, NLN has advanced the science of nursing education by promoting greater collaboration among stakeholders, increasing diversity in nursing, and advancing excellence in care for patients. She is frequently called on by congressional leaders and policymakers to offer her expert perspective and public testimony on increasing support for nursing education and workforce development to address the persistent nursing shortage, which threatens health care delivery across the United States.

Harriet Udin Aronow, PhD, FAAN, will be presented with the Outstanding Leadership Award. This distinction recognizes Honorary Fellows of the Academy for exemplary service and perseverance as a champion of the nursing profession. Dr. Aronow is a Research Scientist and Professor of Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, and Nursing at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Aronow’s work advances, develops, and supports the role of nursing to maximize health outcomes and well-being for all adults. For over 40 years, Dr. Aronow’s work has been interprofessional and team-based and located in inpatient, ambulatory, home, and community settings. She is also known for her work creating interventions for advanced practice nurses to use to help older adults maintain or improve their health.

These remarkable individuals will be recognized throughout the American Academy of Nursing’s Health Policy Conference. The conference theme this year focuses on Courageous Transformations Towards an Equitable Future. Learn more about the Academy and visit the policy conference website for more details.

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About the American Academy of Nursing
The American Academy of Nursing serves the public by advancing health policy and practice through the generation, synthesis, and dissemination of nursing knowledge. Academy Fellows are inducted into the organization for their extraordinary contributions to improve health locally and globally. With more than 3,000 Fellows, the Academy represents nursing’s most accomplished leaders in policy, research, administration, practice, and academia.

Contact: Caroline Kane | 202-777-1173 | ckane@AANnet.org