11.11 

Beta Kappa president Sharon Bragg (MSN '12, DNP '11), assistant professor, was on hand at Sigma's San Antonio convention to receive the UVA nursing honor society chapter's Sigma Key Award. Beta Kappa, now 50- years old, is one of only a few nursing honor societies to be consistently recognized for excellence.

10.19 

The School was named an American Association for Men in Nursing “Best School for Men in Nursing” for 2023, one of 13 programs honored with the award across the country.

10.5 

Dean emerita and research associate professor Pam Cipriano, two-term president of the American Nurses Association and current president of the International Council of Nurses, was named an American Academy of Nursing “Living Legend” at the Academy’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., where Kenneth R. White (CERTI-ACNP ’13), professor emerita and dean at MGH Institute of Health Professions’ School of Nursing presided over the ceremony as Academy president. 

10.1 

Associate dean for research Jeanne Alhusen, with research team members Maria McDonald (PhD ’23), a post-doctoral fellow, and associate professor and PhD program director Kathryn Laughon (BSN ’98), earned a $221,000 U3 supplement grant for their NIH-funded investigation of psychosocial risks during pregnancy and their influence on birth outcomes among people with disabilities.

On Oct. 5 in Washington, D.C., Alhusen was also chosen to present as part of a panel of experts discussing disability at the American Academy of Nursing’s annual meeting.

9.26 

Kim Acquaviva, the Betty Norman Norris Professor of Nursing, earned a $50K Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation grant to develop an LGBTQIA-inclusive intervention to facilitate conversations between clinicians and seriously ill patients about sexual pleasure.

Acquaviva also published a new book, The Handbook of LGBTQIA-Inclusive Hospice and Palliative Care (Columbia University Press), this fall.

9.20 

A five-member team of accreditors from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) and three reviewers from the Virginia Board of Nursing assessed the School’s bachelor’s, master’s, certificate, and DNP programs during a visit. Though the School’s official reaccreditation will come in April 2024, the CCNE visitors found all programs under review met all the accreditation standards.

9.20 

Assistant professor Jessie Gibson, who studies mental health interventions for patients with Huntington’s disease, earned a $458K, three-year National Institute for Nursing Research award for career development and continues her investigation into the impact of MindTrails, an online brain training intervention that aims to reduce anxiety symptoms and negativity bias in people with neurodegenerative diseases.

Gibson was also named a junior editor at the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, one of just two nurses on the 52-member editorial board. 

9.18 

DNP student and adolescent mental health advocate Sherrie Guyer—who, in August, published a CNN op-ed titled “The question every parent should ask before school starts”—testified before the Virginia General Assembly’s School Health Services Committee to advocate for a legislation to put a school nurse in every public school. 

9.12 

The Bjoring Center director Dominique Tobbell, the Centennial Distinguished Professor, earned an American Association for the History of Nursing H21 grant for a study of community health nursing between 1960 and 2010. Tobbell’s book, Dr Nurse: Science, Politics, and the Transformation of American Nursing (University of Chicago Press), was published last winter, which earned the AAHN’s Lavinia Dock Award at the AAHN's early October conference.

9.9 

Faculty members Brittany Harrison (DNP ’23), Samantha Hudgins (BSN ’13), Christoph Lecznar (DNP ’23), and Maria McDonald (PhD ’23) were honored at the Virginia Nurses Association’s annual gala with “40 Under 40” awards.

That same evening, dean emerita Pam Cipriano also received the 2023 Nancy Vance Award, the VNA’s highest honor, assistant professor Ashley Apple (BSN ’18, MSN ’20, DNP ’21) was installed for a second term as the VNA’s commissioner on government relations, and assistant professor Richard Ridge (PhD ’01) was installed for a second term as the VNA’s commissioner on workforce issues. 

9.1 

PhD student Lauren Catlett (MSN ’16) earned a $10K Springfield Research Fund Dissertation Fellowship from the American Psychological Foundation for their study to co-design an advance care planning model with transgender and gender-diverse adults as a way to communicate wishes for gender-affirming care.

8.22 

Professor Cathy Campbell and alumna Dallas Ducar (CNL ’17, CERTI-PMHNP ’19), founding CEO of Transhealth in Northampton, Ma., co-authored an op-ed published in STAT News titled, “How to take care of trans patients in hospice.” 

8.14 

The second clinical instructor “bootcamp” brought together 11 UVA Health nurses with a penchant to teach for a three-day teaching intensive, organized by faculty members Kathryn Reid (BSN ’84, MSN ’88, CERTI-FNP ’96) and simulation educators Jennifer Gaines and Samantha Hudgins (BSN ’13). 

Pictured are the first cohort of 18 of 29 "bootcamp" participants who took the three-day course in May 2023. 

7.30 

Meghan Mattos (MSN ’09), associate professor and an NIH grantee, was among 33 faculty members chosen for a yearlong Research Communication Fellowship through the vice president for research. 

7.24 

Associate dean Melissa Gomes (CERTI-PMHNP ’13) completed the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Diversity Leadership Institute. 

7.21 

Virginia LeBaron (BSN ’96), the Kluge-Schakat Professor of Nursing, an NIH grantee, and a Betty Irene Moore Foundation Fellow, was named a National Cancer Institute visiting scholar, only the fourth academic ever to be so honored for this yearlong professional development program. The new appointment began in October 2023.

7.1 

Associate professor Ishan Williams, a social and behavioral scientist and NIH grantee, was one of 15 UVA scientists chosen to receive a three-year Shannon Center Mid-Career Fellowship. 

6.26 

The School announced that it would guarantee admissions for alumni of its nursing programs interested in enrolling in its MSN, post-master’s, and DNP programs. The new guarantee was rolled out last summer and, this application season, brought dozens of former students back to the School’s wealth of graduate hybrid and executive format programs. More than three dozen alumni joined an admissions chat on Zoom to learn more.

6.1 

Interim associate dean for academic programs Shelly Smith (BSN ’99, DNP ’12), an associate professor, was elected to the Virginia Health Workforce Development Authority’s executive board, a group established by the General Assembly to identify and address health workforce issues across the state.