The Carruth Wagner Advanced Practice Award recognizes Advanced Practice Nurses who have utilized their advanced degrees to contribute to innovations or programs that significantly impacted the health of a community or population. This award was open to all Advanced Practice Nurses. This year’s award was presented to CDR Kevin D. Elker, USPHS, a Board Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist in Adult Health and a Wound Care Specialist certified through the Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nursing Society. He serves as a Nurse Specialist in Wound Care for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota. CDR Elker’s dedicated service over the last few years has demonstrated not only a prominent level of expertise in wound care, but a commitment to practice, education, and research as an advanced practice nurse in his local community, as well as in the BOP and the Corps.
The Carruth Wagner Innovative Collaboration Award recognizes professional nurses who have innovatively contributed to successful partnerships or collaborations between countries, programs, agencies, projects or initiatives. This award recognizes the nominee’s successful contributions to building health partnerships and collaborations that foster the development of innovative health delivery systems and healthy populations. This year’s award is presented to Ms. Renee Raney-Cravens, RN, PHN, AE-C from the Pawnee Indian Health Center (PIHC), Indian Health Service (IHS). Ms. Raney-Cravens began her IHS career in 2006 as a Community Health Nurse and Certified Asthma Educator. In this role, she sought out opportunities to educate clinic staff on the asthma disease process, medications, devices and management of triggers. She has supported the medical providers at PIHC and Pawhuska in implementing the 2007 National Health, Lung and Blood Institute Asthma Guidelines into their practice, including spirometry and individualized action care plans for uncontrolled asthma patients. Additionally, Ms. Raney-Cravens has collaborated with the clinic pediatrician to implement a $50,000 Environmental Protection Agency grant for improving Indoor Air Quality throughout the Pawnee Community.
The Carruth Wagner Nurse of the Year Award honors the legacy of Dr. Carruth Wagner who valued the importance of nurses in public health. The award acknowledges the nominees successful leadership and contributions to education, training, career development, and mentoring, all of which contribute to building a strong nursing workforce and a strong public health infrastructure. This year’s award is presented to Ms. Mary V. Piper, RN from Sioux San Hospital, Indian Health Service (IHS) in Rapid City, South Dakota. Ms. Piper has proudly demonstrated strong public health service, leadership, and excellence throughout the past 60 years. She has enhanced career development programs with an ultimate goal of nurse recruitment and retention. Ms. Piper has served the Sioux San IHS Hospital, specifically, for over 27 years. Throughout the years, she has accepted short term assignments to several service units on local reservations during times of nursing shortages.
The Mabel May Wagner Nursing Award was initially made possible by the devotion and generosity Dr. Carruth Wagner, who established the award to honor the memory of his mother. This year's award is presented to LCDR Faith Walsh, USPHS. As the Director of Specialty Nursing Services for Tanana Chiefs Conference in Fairbanks, Alaska, LCDR Walsh consistently demonstrates a sincere love of the patient population she serves and a deep devotion to providing for its well being. She has been responsible for coordinating and organizing Women's Health for Northern Alaska including Fairbanks and 43 Native Alaskan villages. She has taught basic life support, human reproduction, sexually transmitted disease prevention, prenatal care, and information technology in each and every village she oversees.
LCDR M. Justine Nixon, USPHS is also the recipient of the Mabel May Wagner Nursing Award because of her outstanding contributions to the Federal Correctional Complex Center (FCC) in Butner, North Carolina, over the past several years. More specifically, LCDR Nixon has performed her duties at a level of excellence that merits recognition and distinction. A brief listing of her accomplishments would include the following: developed the current Suicide Watch Assessment forms (2007); organized the first annual Health Screening Day for staff at the FMC Butner (2008); and improved the delivery of clinical care in secured mental health housing units (2007 to the present). LCDR Nixon recognizes the benefits and value of remaining highly skilled and knowledgeable in this ever changing profession.
The Lucille Woodville Memorial Award was established in the Corps’ centennial year as a memorial to the professional career of Lucille Woodville who began her illustrious career in the Nurse Midwifery Service in Bethel, Alaska. The award honors a nurse midwife or maternal/child health nurse whose work has resulted in a significant contribution to the health and well-being of mothers and newborns. This year’s award is presented CDR Rosemary Bolza, USPHS, for her extraordinary commitment to the midwifery profession in the Navajo Nation (Fort Defiance Indian Health Service (FDIH)) and her deployments to the Rabia-e-Balkhi Women’s Hospital in Afghanistan. CDR Bolza’s accomplishments include the following: Nurse Manager of the FDIH OB/GYN Inpatient unit from 2007 to the present, and her work with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Afghan Health Initiative in 2004 and 2009. CDR Bolza, a pillar of the Fort Defiance Hospital Midwifery Community, has demonstrated her strong commitment to the health of Native American women and children as the Nurse Manager of the OB/GYN Inpatient Unit and the Supervisory Midwife of the Hospital.
The Nurse Responder of the Year Award is given annually to an active duty or retired Corps nurse whose contributions have impacted emergency preparedness, disaster response, and/or national or international public health threats. This year’s award is presented to CAPT Lynn Slepski, USPHS, Senior Health Intelligence Officer in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, Department of Homeland Security. CAPT Slepski has amassed an extraordinary number of accomplishments and leadership activities in designing and implementing the Nations’ disaster response plans for pandemic influenza, weapons of mass destruction, counter-terrorism, disaster scenarios, and humanitarian response. She is a recognized international and national expert in all aspects of emergency preparedness and disaster response and is repeatedly invited to speak based on her level of expertise. CAPT Slepski is a consummate, talented officer who has singularly advanced the knowledge of Corps officers (specifically nurses) to deal with the demands of deployment. She continues to serve with distinction.
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HHS, Office of Public Health and Science |