Celebrating extraordinary leadership and far-reaching impact on society
The M. Louise Fitzpatrick Award for Transformative Leadership is named in memory of M. Louise Fitzpatrick, EdD, RN, FAAN, Connelly Endowed Dean and Professor of Nursing, who led Villanova University’s College of Nursing from 1978 until her death in 2017. During those nearly 40 years, she developed the College into a premier nursing program, recognized repeatedly by the National League for Nursing as a Center of Excellence in Nursing Education. She is remembered as one of the most vibrant, transformative leaders in the history of Villanova University.
The M. Louise Fitzpatrick Award for Transformative Leadership should be conferred upon a person who demonstrates:
- transformative leadership that has brought about change in nursing, health and/or health care
- a visionary perspective
- a commitment to excellence
- a concern for human dignity, ethics, service, diversity, underserved and vulnerable populations, and social justice, nationally and globally, that reflects the values and mission of Villanova University and the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing.
2023 AWARD
CEREMONY & LECTURE
Thursday, October 19, 2023 | 5:30 pm ET
Driscoll Hall, Larson Kelly Auditorium | Fitzpatrick College of Nursing | Villanova University
2023 Award Recipient
Loretta Sweet Jemmott, PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN
Vice President, Health and Health Equity; Professor, Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions
“Engaging the Community to Promote Health:
Listening to Their Voices and Responding”
Dr. Loretta Sweet Jemmott, an expert in health promotion research, is one of the nation's foremost investigators in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention, with perhaps the most consistent track record of evidence-based, HIV risk-reduction interventions. She and her husband, John B. Jemmott, III, PhD, have attracted more than $150 million in NIH funding over the past two decades to design and test interventions to reduce the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among diverse populations in the U.S., Botswana, South Africa, Jamaica, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Publishing over 100 peer-reviewed articles, books and chapters, her studies not only reported reducing risk-associated sexual behaviors, but also the incidence of STIs.
Dr. Jemmott is an outstanding translational and community-engagement researcher. She partnered with community-based organizations, from churches and clinics to barbershops, housing developments and schools, transforming her research outcomes for use in real-world settings. To date, eight of her evidence-based interventions have been designated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health for national and international dissemination used in 48 states across the nation.
After retiring from a successful 20-year tenure at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Jemmott joined Drexel in 2015 as vice president for Health and Health Equity and professor in the College of Nursing and Health Professions. Here she led the We’re Here Because We Care: Building Healthy Communities Together, using a qualitative, community-engaged approach to determine their health concerns and partnered with them to create health promotion initiatives. This led to the creation Drexel’s Community Wellness HUB. Dr. Jemmott also works with faculty to build their program of research, co-leads the Implementation Science Research Working Group, the Fall Institute on Implementation Science Research and teaches community engagement, intervention development and implementation science courses.
Dr. Jemmott earned her BSN from Hampton Institute of Nursing, and her MSN in Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Nursing as well as her PhD in Human Sexuality Education from the University of Pennsylvania.
Previous Award Recipients
Under Dr. Beverly Malone’s leadership, the National League for Nursing has advanced the science of nursing education by promoting greater collaboration among stakeholders, increasing diversity in nursing and nursing education, and advancing excellence in care for patients. Her distinguished career has mixed policy, education, administration and clinical practice, including as federal deputy assistant secretary for health under President Bill Clinton.
As a reviewer, Dr. Malone contributed to the groundbreaking IOM report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. She served on the Minority Health Federal Advisory Committee, a federal panel established to advise the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, and is currently a member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Board of Directors where she is vice chair. She has received more than 20 honorary degrees.
Elected two terms as president of the American Nurses Association representing 180,000 nurses, Dr. Malone also served as the first US and African American general secretary of the United Kingdom (UK) Royal College of Nursing representing 400,000 nurses. A member of the UK as well as US delegation to the World Health Assembly, she was also vice chair of the Brussels-based European Federation of Nurses Association.
Dr. Malone’s awards and honors are numerous, including the American Nurses Association President's Award and the American Academy of Nursing “Living Legend” status. She received a citation from the American Psychological Association for her outstanding leadership in advancing excellence in healthcare for the nation and global community and, in 2021, Modern Healthcare honored her with a Top 25 Women Leaders' Luminary Award and named her to the inaugural list of five Minority Healthcare Luminaries.
Dr. Mason is Senior Policy Service Professor at the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement, George Washington University School of Nursing; and Professor Emerita at Hunter College, where she held the Rudin Endowed Chair and founded the Center for Health, Media & Policy. She is the Programme Director for the International Council of Nurses’ Global Nursing Leadership Institute, a past President of the American Academy of Nursing, and former editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Nursing. She has produced and hosted radio programs on health and health policy since 1985, and currently hosts HealthCetera in the Catskills on WIOX Radio. She has served as the only health professional on the National Advisory Committee for Kaiser Health News since its inception in 2009. Dr. Mason is the lead editor of the book, Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care, now in its 8th edition, and blogs on policy for JAMA Health Forum. She is the principal investigator on a 2017 replication of the 1997 Woodhull Study on Nurses and the Media published in 2018 in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship and an additional analysis of journalists’ experiences with using nurses as sources in health news stories, published in the American Journal of Nursing. She is Chair of the National Advisory Board for the Rush Center Health and Social Care Integration and of the Steering Committee for the Catskills Addiction Coalition. She serves on the boards of directors for the Primary Care Development Corporation, Public Health Solutions, and Margaretville Hospital (part of the Westchester Medical Health Network). She was the only nurse serving on the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s committee and report on Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care. She is the recipient of numerous awards for policy, leadership, dissemination of science, writing, education, public health, media and advocacy; most recently the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Health Policy by the New York Academy of Medicine in 2019 and the Archon Award for Leadership from Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honorary Society.
Dr. Mason received a BSN from West Virginia University, MSN from St. Louis University, and PhD from New York University; and holds an honorary doctorate of science from West Virginia University and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Long Island University.
Dr. Patricia A. Grady was appointed Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) on April 3, 1995. She earned her undergraduate degree in nursing from Georgetown University, and pursued her graduate education at the University of Maryland, receiving a master’s degree from the School of Nursing and a doctorate in physiology from the School of Medicine.
Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology, Director of the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing; Trustee, Villanova University
Dr. Naylor is the architect of the Transitional Care Model (TCM), an advanced practice nurse-coordinated, team-based innovation targeting high risk older adults that is recognized as a top evidence-based approach with a positive impact on the health and well-being of chronically ill older adults across the U.S., while assuring wiser use of societal resources. It is also being leveraged globally.
2020 postponed due to COVID-19.
Accreditation
Villanova University M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.