Faculty Leaders Make an Impact

By Kelly Brooks-Staub and Jeremiah Rush ’08
Photos by Will Kirk

Assistant professor Elizabeth (Betty) Jordan, DNSc, RNC, has been elected to serve on the 2007 Board of Directors of the Association of Women’ s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), which serves and represents more than 22,000 nurses.

“I have had the privilege of serving on two AWHONN task forces and working with the association in several other capacities,” says Jordan. “I am delighted to have this opportunity to serve on the Board of Directors and work with the other Board members and headquarters staff to continue to help AWHONN nurses stay on the leading edge of health care practice.”

But Jordan will be serving on more than one board of directors in the coming years: She was also recently elected to the board of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Baby (HMHB) Coalition for a two-year term. HMHB works to strengthen families and build healthy communities and is a recognized leader and resource in maternal and child health.

Instructor Rosemary Mortimer, MSN, MSEd has been selected as President-Elect for the Maryland Nurses Association (MNA). Founded 103 years ago, the MNA is Maryland’s only statewide, non-profit, multipurpose professional organization available to registered nurses and is a chapter of the American Nurses Association that provides direction and a voice for the profession of nursing.

“We have never been able to make our voices heard the way they need to be,” Mortimer says. “My objective in the next year is to make sure nurses’ voices ring loud and clear in Annapolis and Washington, D.C.”

Julie Stanik-Hutt, PhD, ACNP, associate professor, and Shirley Van Zandt, MS, MPH, CRNP, instructor have been elected to leadership positions in the American College of Nurse Practitioners. Stanik-Hutt has been chosen as President-elect and Vice President, while VanZandt has been selected as a member of the Nominating Committee.

“This is a great honor [for Stanik-Hutt and Van Zandt] personally and professionally—and it reflects gloriously on the School of Nursing!” said Dean Martha Hill.

The American College of Nurse Practitioners is an umbrella organization representing more than 35,000 nurse practitioners. Its mission is to ensure a solid policy and regulatory foundation that enables nurse practitioners to continue providing accessible, high-quality health care.

“We can’t accomplish everything we need to do alone. We need all the help we can muster,” says Stanik-Hutt. “Over the next three years, I want to work to build our network of collaborators in nursing and empower individual nurse practitioners through leadership and media training and education.”

Jennifer Wenzel, PhD, RN, CCM, assistant professor, has been elected to the Southern Nursing Research Society (SNRS) Governing Board for the 2007–2009 term.

The SNRS is an organization for nurses in 14 southern U.S. states, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Bahamas that promotes nursing research.

“I’m pleased to have this opportunity to serve in an organization that works to promote research opportunities for nurses at all levels,” says Wenzel. “I am honored to be representing our School of Nursing at a time when SNRS is focused on expanding and evolving to better meet the needs of its members.”