college of nursing & healthcare innovation ends 50th Anniversary Celebration with Distinguished alumni awards and proclamation of arizona nurses day
PHOENIX – The Arizona State University College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation concluded its 50th anniversary celebration with a Gala Dinner attended by nearly 400 alumni, community partners, faculty, staff and students at the Arizona Biltmore last Friday.
The ceremony featured a proclamation from Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano naming April 25 as Arizona Nurses Day. The proclamation recognizes the nursing profession as one that provides the highest quality of evidence-based healthcare to improve patient outcomes. It also recognizes nursing colleges that are dedicated to graduating the highest caliber of nurses to ensure optimal health and it cites nurses in the state who demonstrate excellence in clinical practice, teaching, research, administration, health promotion and patient advocacy.
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon also spoke at the dinner about the City’s partnership with ASU that brought the nursing college to downtown and the importance of nurses to the health of city, county and state residents.
Dean Bernadette Melnyk presented inaugural Dream, Discover and Deliver awards to three distinguished alumni as follows:
- Dream Award – Ann Van Slyck, BSN, 1968; MSN, 1973; retired nursing executive and founding Board Member of the Health Care Coalition, Arizonans to Protect Quality Health Service
- Discover Award – Suzanne Bakken, BSN, 1974; Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University
- Deliver Award – Linda Burnes Bolton, BSN, 1970; Vice President for Nursing and Director of Nursing Research, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Dream•Discover•Deliver is the tagline for the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation and describes the culture it offers its students, faculty and staff.
DVD presentations on the college’s history, alumni stories, and taped interviews with all five deans of the college highlighted the evening.
Colleen Keller, Class of 1975, professor of nursing and director of the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence at ASU and Joey Ridenour, Class of 1969, executive director of the Arizona Board of Nursing, co-chaired the Steering Committee for the 15-month anniversary program.
The ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation opened on Sept. 22, 1957, with six students and three faculty members who were housed in the basement of Matthews Library on the Tempe campus. Today it has more than 1,800 students, 140 faculty, and more than 8,000 graduates.
Since 1957, the college has made significant strides in expanding curricula, promoting research and serving the community. The college has introduced innovative curricula, including cutting-edge doctoral programs and creative masters programs, such as the interdisciplinary Master in Healthcare Innovation. Five academic clinics operated by the college provide practice opportunities for both faculty and students, while serving the most underserved communities in Maricopa County. The college operates five centers for scholarship, research and mentoring - the Center for the Advancement of Evidence-based Practice, the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, the Center for Improving Health Outcomes in Children, Teens and Families, the Center for Healthy Outcomes in Aging, and the Center for Healthcare Innovation & Clinical Trials.
The college is ranked in the top 8 percent of 396 graduate nursing programs in the country in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report College Rankings.
