Audrey Hepburn Award for Contributions to the Health and Welfare of Children

2019 Award Recipient

Dianne C. Morrison-Beedy PhD, RN, FNAP, FAANP, FAAN


Chief Talent & Global Strategy Officer, Centennial Professor of Nursing, Infectious Disease Institute Faculty
The Ohio State University College of Nursing
Ohio, USA

Dr. Dianne Morrison-Beedy has been committed to work on behalf of children in need throughout her career, specifically addressing the challenges faced by impoverished, disenfranchised, adolescent girls. Her work has resulted in significant improvements in the lives of adolescent girls in preventing HIV/STD transmission. Her intervention, the Health Improvement Project for Teens (or HIP Teens) is classified as a best evidence intervention by the US Centers for Disease Control and is included in its compendium of effective behavioral interventions. HIP Teens is now in the process of being scaled up in urban communities across the United States and scaled out to international communities. Dr. Morrison-Beedy is a prolific scholar and has built research and educational partnerships across the globe, strengthening global capabilities and coordination.

2017 Award Recipient

Hepburn- Sloand

Elizabeth Sloand, PhD, CPNP, FAAN

Associate Professor
Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
Maryland, USA

I am humbled, honored, and excited to receive the Audrey Hepburn Award for Contributions to the Health and Welfare of Children. As a pediatric nurse practitioner and nurse educator, I have had the privilege of working with children and families throughout my career to improve their health.        

Elizabeth Sloand has been dedicated to the care of under-served and low-income children throughout her career. Her work as a nurse educator, scholar, and pediatric provider focuses on uninsured and under-insured children and youth in the US and Haiti. She currently is the primary care provider in an urban clinic for children ages 0 – 21, many of whom live in vulnerable circumstances. In addition, she has traveled to Haiti routinely for many years, providing episodic primary and preventive healthcare to impoverished rural families. She mentors nursing and nurse practitioner students who participate on the medical teams as part of their training in primary care and community health nursing. Dr. Sloand teaches graduate nursing students in pediatrics and public health. She is a nurse researcher with scholarly projects in the areas of infant nutrition, asthma management, and innovative preventive care. Her publications appear in scholarly nursing and public health journals.

2015 Award Recipient

Azza H. Ahmed, DNSc, IBCLC, CPNP

Associate Professor Purdue University School of Nursing Indiana, USA Delta Omicron #109

Dr. Ahmed is a practitioner, teacher and researcher. She is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLC) and a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner with 25 years of experience in breastfeeding research. Dr. Ahmed received her Bachelor in Nursing, MSN, and DNS from the Faculty of Nursing, Cairo University and completed her Post-Master certificate as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from Purdue University School of Nursing. Dr. Ahmed’s research focus is on promoting breastfeeding among vulnerable populations including low income mothers. Dr. Ahmed has been actively involved in advancing lactation research and promoting breastfeeding among vulnerable populations since 1990. She has published her work in scholarly peer reviewed journals and presented her work nationally and internationally. Dr. Ahmed received several grants to support her research and is actively involved in interdisciplinary breastfeeding research teams. She is an active member in several national and international professional organizations such as MNRS, Sigma and ILCA.

Excellence in Creativity Award
Edith Moore Copeland Founders Award

2019 Award Recipient

Lynn Visser MSN, RN, PHN, CEN, CPEN


Registered Nurse
California, USA

Ms. Visser is a proud and active member of the nursing profession serving others with the highest degree of respect, moral character, accuracy, and intuitive drive. Her creative energy has provided nursing with new and valuable information in addition to mentoring others to pursue their own creative interests. Ms. Visser continues to think outside of the box whenever she identifies a need in nursing; she ponders and works to find a way to assist in meeting the solution to that recognized need. She has been a great contributor to social media through blogging and posts to major websites and has even used Skype to interact with attendees taking a triage course in Qatar. Recognizing that continuing education is essential for today’s nurse, Ms. Visser utilizes her continuing education provider status to offer free continuing education contact hours along with Fast Facts for the Triage Nurse; this was the first time that Springer Publishing had a Lead Nurse Planner as an author who could offer contact hours without having to outsource. Ms. Visser has devoted her career to emergency nursing, triage education, mentoring others, and writing about topics that impact nursing.

2017 Award Recipient

F Creativity- Jeffries

Pamela R. Jeffries, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF

Professor and Dean
George Washington University School of Nursing
District of Columbia, USA

Being lauded for creativity and my work on the NLN/Jeffries Simulation Framework is both exciting and humbling. Nationally and internationally, Sigma is recognized as a standard of excellence within nursing. Being honored by such a prestigious group of my peers and colleagues is a highlight of my career.

Pamela R. Jeffries is internationally known for her research and work in nursing education and simulation. Throughout the academic community, she is well regarded for her scholarly contributions to the development of innovative teaching strategies, experiential learning techniques, new pedagogies and the delivery of content using technology. Her accomplishments have been recognized through prestigious teaching and research awards and honors from a number of national and international organizations including NLN, AACN, Sigma Theta Tau International and the International Nursing Association of Clinical Simulations and Learning. 

2015 Award Recipient

Nancy Glass, PhD, MPH, RN

Professor Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Maryland, USA Nu Beta Chapter #312

Nancy Glass, PhD, MPH, RN. Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Associate Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health. Dr. Glass conducts community-based interventions with diverse populations across multiple domestic and global settings. She is the Principal Investigator (PI) of multiple multidisciplinary studies in the US, DR Congo, Somalia, and South Sudan to test employment, economic empowerment and safety interventions to improve the health of survivors of gender-based violence and their families.

Helen Henry Excellence of Care Award

2017 Award Recipient

Henry- CNL Group

Clinical Nurse Leaders at the Carolinas Medical Center

Carolinas Healthcare System
North Carolina, USA

This award validates the hard work, determination and dedication Clinical Nurse Leaders at Carolinas Medical Center devote to our daily practice. This award not only recognizing these pioneering nurses but also should encourage other nurses to promote innovative and advancement of the nursing profession.

The Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) program at Carolinas Medical Center grew from 4 graduates in 2008 to more than 40 CNL graduates and students today. This has designated the Level 1 Trauma Center as the largest employer of practicing CNLs within one setting. These masters prepared CNLs are trained to act as “attending nurses” overseeing the clinical care of a microsystem to serve as the glue to care fragmentation and to overcome many of the healthcare challenges we all face. A massive reduction in aggregate adverse events totaling millions of dollars has been documented on the CNL units. A few of these include reductions in falls (28%), catheter associated urinary tract infections (63%), central line infections (5%) and hospital acquired pressure ulcer rates (38%). CNLs at CMC continue to institute evidence based practice at the bedside, empower nurses and improve care quality as well as patient outcomes.  

2015 Award Recipients

(Left - Right) Joanna Hudak, Elizabeth Ryland, Danyale Davis

Danyale Marie Davis, BSN, RN, PCCN

Registered Nurse Sentara Healthcare Virginia, USA

Danyale Davis graduated with her baccalaureate degree from Old Dominion University and has practiced nursing for nearly ten years. She began her nursing career in the Intermediate Care Unit (IMCU) where she obtained professional certification as a progressive care certified nurse (PCCN). Working in the IMCU setting facilitated the foundation for her passion to focus and improve on patient safety outcomes. The transportation diagram that was developed and adapted system wide was a genuine example of interdisciplinary collaboration between nursing and respiratory care and has been recognized in Sentara Leigh‘s “Journey to Magnet Excellence.” She has also worked on various collaborative teams focusing on improving patient safety outcomes as well as chaired a committee to streamline practices in the IMCU setting across the healthcare systems twelve hospitals. Danyale currently works as a staff nurse with the Sentara Systemwide Resource Pool and travels within each of the hospitals in the IMCU setting.

Joanna M Hudak, MS, RRT, NPS

Respiratory Care and Pulmonary Diagnostics Manager Sentara Healthcare Virginia, USA

Joanna Hudak is the Respiratory Care and Pulmonary Diagnostics manager at Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk, VA; she has over 25 years of experience in respiratory care. Joanna earned her baccalaureate degree from SUNY Health Science Center in Syracuse NY in 1992. She earned a Master’s degree in management from Troy State University in 2001. She is credentialed by the National Board of Respiratory Care as a registered respiratory therapist and a respiratory neonatal pediatric specialist. Joanna currently serves on the advisory board for the Tidewater community college respiratory therapy program college. She currently focuses within Sentara Healthcare on streamlining respiratory practice across the system. She was recently selected to be the project manager for the final phase of Sentara Leigh’s building renovation project. In her tenure with Sentara Healthcare she has received professional excellence and quality excellence awards for her work.

Elizabeth M. Ryland, BA, RRT

Clinical Respiratory Specialist Sentara Leigh Hospital Virginia, USA

Elizabeth Ryland graduated from Tidewater Community College with an Associates Applied Science degree in Respiratory Therapy and has been a staff respiratory therapist at Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia since 1991. She obtained her baccalaureate degree from Virginia Wesleyan College in Business with special focus in Management and Economics. She was appointed as Clinical Specialist for Respiratory Care in 2000. She served as District Director and Vice President for the Virginia Society for Respiratory Care and participated in the initiative for Respiratory state licensure in Virginia. She currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Tidewater Community College respiratory therapy program. Her most recent work has been focused on inter-professional education of registered nurses and respiratory therapists using state of the art critical care simulation as well as airway safety and transportation of respiratory compromised patients. This work was highlighted in Sentara Leigh Hospital's "Journey to Magnet Excellence".

Hester C. Klopper Global Health Award

2019 Award Recipient

2019 Recipient Klopper- Capstone College

Capstone College of Nursing


University of Alabama
Alabama, USA

The Capstone College of Nursing is home to Sigma members engaged in projects that address health disparities throughout the world. Between March 2017 and March 2019, students and faculty participated in 10 international medical mission trips and study abroad programs, including trips to Africa, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, and South America. These trips provided experiential learning opportunities to over 200 students while advancing the health of vulnerable individuals affected by health disparities. Capstone College of Nursing has a long history of prioritizing global health initiatives that improve the human condition. Initiatives include mobile health clinics in rural areas, menstrual hygiene and sex education for at risk adolescents, provision of healthcare in refugee camps, and weather-related disaster relief interventions. Through these efforts, more than 10,000 individual clients have been impacted for the better. These projects position students to become leaders in global health practice and research.

2017 Award Recipient

Klopper- Iota Xi

Iota Xi Chapter #228

Florida Atlantic University
Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing
Florida, USA

This award exemplifies the dedication and hard work of Iota Xi members to establish and maintain a presence in rural Guatemala with the underserved indigenous Maya population. We bring health care and service to those who would not otherwise receive such care. We created policy and follow up protocol.          

Dr. Rhonda Goodman began the Guatemala Study Abroad Program in rural Guatemala in 2012. Since then, she has taken approximately 200 students and faculty members, most of which are Iota Xi members or were inducted into Iota Xi prior to graduation. The vision of this program is to bring health care to the underserved indigenous Maya population which lives in extreme poverty and to provide a rich cultural immersion and practicum experience for our graduate and undergraduate nursing students. We provide primary care clinics, cervical cancer screening, school health and wellness screenings, health education and promotion, the provision and installation of wood stoves, donations of school supplies, student scholarships, education for the Guatemalan health care workers, compost latrines, and water filters. Dr. Goodman has published a manual for culturally-specific primary care for the patients in rural Guatemala and has established an effective follow up system for our patients.

2015 Award Recipient

Rho Delta Chapter #410

Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery Pakistan

The Rho Delta Chapter has been working to fulfill the mission of Sigma since its chartering in 2000. During the 2013-2015 biennium, Rho Delta Chapter held various activities intended to address disparities in global health, including initiatives at orphanages, daycare centers, and child rehabilitative centers of Karachi, Pakistan, and initiatives to support breastfeeding. The chapter also conducted an innovative immunization quiz show, outreach to local populations to promote awareness, and achieved recognition as venue for providing polio vaccine to people wanting to travel outside of Pakistan.

Excellence in Nursing Practice Award
Marie Hippensteel Lingeman Founders Award

2019 Award Recipient

2019 Practice- Woolforde

Launette Woolforde EdD, DNP, RN-BC


Vice President, Nursing Education and Professional Development
Northwell Health
New York, USA

Dr. Woolforde developed the Disruptive Innovations in Clinical Education, or DICE, Model, to emphasize nurse empowerment, transformational practice, and nurses as leaders. Through this model she has produced, and sustained nurse-led programs replicated to demonstrate substantial improvements across nursing practice spanning the diaspora of healthcare settings. Her work helps to place nursing at the forefront among the health professions in the clinical education and practice environment. Using DICE principles, she co-led the implementation of a BSN-in-5 standard across 23 hospitals and increased academic-clinical nursing contracts from 35 to 274 programs, facilitating academic progression in nursing, a 40% increase in the regional BSN rate, and establishing a model and outcomes that were shared statewide leading to legislative change in the US state of New York. Dr. Woolforde is a dynamic leader in nursing practice and her work to develop, apply, and disseminate the DICE model outcomes nationally and internationally has resulted in amazing programs in clinical education and practice in the interprofessional arena, unprecedented clinical quality improvement and patient care outcomes, and substantial financial savings.

2017 Award Recipient


Founders- Marie Hippensteel Lingeman

Elizabeth Duxbury    

MS, RN, ACNS-BC
 Clinical Nurse Specialist, Medical Intensive Care Unit
Rochester Regional Health


I am humbled to receive this award validating a lifelong desire to collaboratively improve patient care and positively impact the nursing profession. This award has provided me a greater appreciation for the impact that nurses make across the spectrum of care for patients, families and communities we so proudly serve.

Elizabeth Duxbury is a Clinical Nurse Specialist at Rochester General Hospital. She is a skilled and compassionate clinician, committed to evidence-based practice, quality improvement and nursing professional development. She thinks beyond the bedside, while never forgetting that patients are the highest priority. Elizabeth promotes a just culture with a non-punitive approach to investigating and addressing quality issues. As a partner in reducing hospital acquired infections such as central line-associated bacteremia (CLABSI), she uses evidence to update polices and implement innovations that result in the realization of statistically significant reductions. To enhance patient and family satisfaction, Elizabeth applied to the Society of Critical Care Medicine Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Collaboration. Her project was selected as one of fifty throughout the United States. Elizabeth is a fearless leader, who role models hard work, creativity, risk taking, caring and collaborative practice. She works diligently to expand nursing scholarly endeavors and promote publication of successes.

2015 Award Recipient

Judith E. Haber, PhD, APRN, BC, FAAN

The Ursula Springer Leadership Professor in Nursing New York University, College of Nursing New York, USA Upsilon Chapter #018 Alpha Omega Chapter #046

Dr. Judith Haber, the Ursula Springer Leadership Professor in Nursing at NYU College of Nursing, is an internationally recognized leader in psychiatric-mental health nursing, evidence-based practice, interprofessional education and practice and oral-systemic health. She is the Executive Director of a national oral health initiative, Oral Health Nursing Education and Practice (OHNEP) and the HRSA funded initiative, Teaching Oral-Systemic Health (TOSH) designed to advance a national nursing and interprofessional oral health agenda. Dr. Haber has received numerous awards including Distinguished Alumna Awards from Adelphi and New York University, the APNA Psychiatric Nurse of the Year Award, and the ANA Hildegarde Peplau Award. Dr. Haber is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Haber is internationally recognized for her landmark textbook, Comprehensive Psychiatric Nursing and currently for the award winning textbook, Nursing Research: Methods and Critical Appraisal for Evidence-based Practice, as well as more than 100 articles and book chapters.

Practice Academe Innovative Collaboration Award

2017 Award Recipient

Practice- DANCE

Duke Advancement of Nursing, Center of Excellence

Duke University Health System and Duke University School of Nursing
North Carolina, USA

The practice-academe innovation collaboration award demonstrates that Duke is a preeminent leader among nursing academic-practice partnerships. This award allows the DANCE partnership to share their model with others around the world in an effort to empower and influence the nursing profession.

The Duke Advancement of Nursing, Center of Excellence (DANCE) is an academic-practice partnership between the Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON) and the Duke University Health System (DUHS). This innovative partnership is built on the foundation of trust, respect, and a shared vision to accomplish mutually beneficial goals that advance the nursing profession. DANCE encompasses two pillars of growth: 1) Lifelong learning and 2) Quality improvement (QI), evidence-based practice (EBP) and research. The vision of DANCE is to be the preeminent leader in academic-practice partnerships that fosters collaboration, synergy, and professional development of nurses throughout the education and career continuum. The mission of the partnership is to support and advance the professional development, knowledge, and skills of all nurses throughout DUSON and DUHS, as well as to serve as an exemplary model of how academic-practice partnerships empower the nursing profession to influence healthcare and education.

2015 Award Recipient

Interdisciplinary Healthcare Education Partnership

Alberta Health Services MacEwan University NorQuest College Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Provincial Health Services Authority University of Alberta Alberta, Canada

The Interdisciplinary Health Education Partnership (IHEP) is an inter-institutional, interprofessional team comprised of healthcare simulation specialists and interprofessional education experts from both clinical practice and academic settings in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. Over the past seven years, IHEP members have successfully developed, implemented, and evaluated multi-modal interprofessional simulations (SIM-IPE) for pre-licensure learners at HELP! Save Stan Saturday (SSS). This annual IPE event offers learners a full day of interprofessional team-based scenarios focused on increasing interprofessional competence. IHEP, through the implementation of SSS, has developed capacity for SIM-IPE in faculty and clinical instructors and successfully provided pre-licensure health science students the opportunity to increase IP competence. Moreover, this partnership has resulted in significant enrichment of SIM-IPE in the nursing and non-nursing simulation practice communities locally and across Canada. Academic and clinical practice members comprise: MacEwan University, Norquest College, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, University of Alberta, Alberta Health Services Provincial Health Authority.