NLN Honors NLN Award Winners
NLN Honors NLN Award Winners
Named Awards Recognize Historic Figures in Nursing Education with Celebration at 2022 Education Summit in Las Vegas
Washington, DC — The National League for Nursing NLN Awards, named for three luminaries in nursing education, will be presented at the 2022 NLN Education Summit,
September 28-30 at the Mirage in Las Vegas, part of a special Honors Convocation. The annual NLN Awards honor individuals and organizations of stature and distinction within nursing education and the wider
field of American health care.
NLN Chair Kathleen Poindexter, PhD, RN, CNE, ANEF, interim associate dean of academic affairs at Michigan State University in Lansing, said, “Each year, the NLN Awards Committee has a challenging task in selecting our winners from many deserving
nominees for these prestigious honors, and 2022, the Year of the Nurse Educator, has been no exception. These three outstanding individuals have earned our highest praise, not only for their distinctive
accomplishments but also for leading a competitive field in nursing education and health care.”
NLN President and CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, said, “The National League for Nursing is proud to bestow this most deserved recognition on these fine leaders, who set an impressive and ongoing example to their colleagues and students. These
awards advance nursing education in the service of promoting accessible, equitable, and culturally sensitive health care to everyone in our nation and across the globe.”
The NLN Mary Adelaide Nutting Award
For Outstanding Teaching or Leadership in Nursing Education
Richard Lee Pullen, Jr., EdD, MSN, RN, CNE, CNE-cl, CMSRN, ANEF
Dr. Richard Lee Pullen, Jr. is a professor and director of the RN to BSN Program at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He made the journey from LPN to doctoral-educated RN and understands the challenges students must face to become a nurse.
He also takes pride in creating joyful learning environments for students. To that end, one of his signature accomplishments is the publication of several Care Group Models. His first was designed to promote students’ acquisition of psychomotor
skills. This one was followed by a second Model to assist students with scholarly writing and a third Model to help students manage patient suffering at the end of life.
Dr. Pullen believes strongly in publishing as a way of teaching on a global scale. He has 125 publications to his credit and enjoys mentoring novice faculty authors. Dr. Pullen has been honored for outstanding teaching in academic settings and has the
distinction of being a Piper Professor of Texas, the highest statewide teaching award a faculty member can achieve there.
The NLN Isabel Hampton Robb Award
For Outstanding Leadership in Clinical Practice
CAPT Michele Ashton Kane, PhD, U.S. Navy
An Alabama native, U.S. Naval CAPT Michele Ashton Kane graduated from Auburn University in Alabama in 1992, attended the Honors Scholars Master’s program at Oxford University, United Kingdom, and earned a doctorate in philosophy as a specialist
in Weapons Grade Tungsten Alloy in C2C12 and L6 Muscle Cells. Her dissertation research led to a reduction in health inequities and improved health for about 30,000 wounded veterans who had retained combat metal fragments from their service in the
Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. CAPT Kane became the first to develop a collaborative inter-professional academic practice partnership model, Project SERVE, in response to the “Joining Forces” campaign initiated by First Lady
Michele Obama and Dr. Jill Biden.
CAPT Kane served as the first executive assistant at the Defense Health Agency, where she directed operations to achieve the first large scale joint military services inter-professional organizational restructuring, affecting care for 9.6 million beneficiaries
and at 721 military treatment facilities. CAPT Kane was also the first nurse to serve in the position of executive officer of the Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU-SA) in San Antonio. During her time there, she was the team lead identifying threats
and barriers to developing resiliency to more than 4,000 active duty and reserve component nurses within the Navy Nurse Corps.
The NLN Lillian Wald Humanitarian Award
Jessica L. Peck, DNP, APRN, CPNP-PC, CNE, CNL, FAANP, FAAN
Dr. Jessica Peck is an expert pediatric nurse practitioner and anti-trafficking nurse-advocate who provides innovative, visionary, and award-winning leadership to develop and lead inclusive and diverse interprofessional teams that produce outcomes of
high-quality health care. Dr. Peck is currently a clinical professor of nursing at Baylor University in Dallas. She holds active credentials as a pediatric nurse practitioner, a Certified Nurse Educator (CNE®),
and a clinical nurse leader.
As both a nurse practitioner and a mother of four teens, she has a special interest in educating and equipping families to promote positive physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual health. She is an accomplished author of clinical articles for peer-reviewed journals, a regular contributor to parenting magazines, and a frequent guest on radio, television, and other media promoting children’s health. Her latest title, to be released this October 18 by W Publishing, is a book for parents of adolescents.
For more information about the NLN Awards, visit NLN.org.
About the National League for Nursing
Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the premier organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. The NLN offers professional development, networking opportunities, testing services, nursing research grants, and public policy initiatives to its nearly 45,000 individual and 1,100 institutional members, comprising nursing education programs across the spectrum of higher education and health care organizations. Learn more at NLN.org.