NEW YORK NURSE: October 2010
Dianne Morrison-Beedy was presented with the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) 2010 Award of Excellence in Research. Morrison-Beedy was nominated for excellence in clinical practice and continued innovation in the delivery of care for women and newborns. Currently the dean of the University of South Florida (USF) College of Nursing she serves also as a senior associate vice president of USF Health. Prior to this, she was the professor and endowed chair of nursing science and assistant dean for research at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. Morrison-Beedy’s research has focused on HIV/AIDS risk reduction, especially for vulnerable adolescent girls. In the past 17 years, serving as principal or co-investigator, she has secured more than $11 million in HIV prevention research funding. A fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and the National Academies of Practice, Morrison-Beedy has received the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care Prevention Award, and the Foundation of New York State Nurses Distinguished Researcher Award. She has served as faculty for Sigma Theta Tau International and Johnson & Johnson Maternal and Child Health Leadership Institute. A member of AWHONN since 1997, she serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecological and Neonatal Nursing.
Julie Sochalski has been appointed director of the Division of Nursing at the Bureau of Health Professions at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Sochalski is well regarded as an authority in health policy and workforce initiatives. She served on the ANA task force that developed Nursing’s Agenda for Health Care Reform in the early 1990s. Sochalski will work alongside Janet Heinrich, the association administrator of the Bureau of Health Professions, and Mary Wakefield, administrator of HRSA, in improving the nation’s health through better healthcare delivery systems and nursing services. She has held numerous positions, including associate professor of nursing, faculty associate in the Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, and senior fellow at the Leonard Davis institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Of her appointment Sochalski commented, “Our healthcare system is only as strong as the workforce that supports it, and health reform has sounded the clarion call. It’s a great privilege to join the leadership at HRSA at this propitious moment and to work with them towards our common goal of assuring that the nation’s healthcare workforce, now and in the future, can meet its challenges.”