The National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence (NHCGNE), located at The Gerontological Society of America, has named Mary O. Whipple, BSN, RN, PHN, CCRP, as the 2015-2017 recipient of the NHCGNE Patricia G. Archbold Scholar Award.
This distinguished honor will support Whipple's doctoral training and propel her career in academic gerontological nursing. She is currently a doctoral student (BSN-PhD) at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, a founding NHCGNE member institution. Whipple's primary mentor is Diane J. Treat-Jacobson, PhD, RN, FAAN.
Since 2000, the NHCGNE has had the generous backing of the John A. Hartford Foundation, with additional support from The Atlantic Philanthropies and the Mayday Fund. These partners have invested over $80 million in national efforts to build academic gerontological nursing capacity through their support. The initiative has supported 280 predoctoral and postdoctoral nursing scholars and fellows who have stimulated excitement about the field among nursing students and practicing nurses. They are among outstanding leaders who will shape future care for older persons.
NHCGNE Executive Director J Taylor Harden, PhD, RN, FAAN, offered her congratulations to Whipple, Treat-Jacobsen, and University of Minnesota School of Nursing Dean Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI.
"The NHCGNE is delighted that Mary is a part of gerontological nursing and improving the health of older Americans," Harden said. "Mary represents the hopes and dreams of many gerontological nurses as well as the hopes of John A. Hartford and George L. Hartford, founders of the John A. Hartford Foundation, who said, 'it is necessary to carve from the vast spectrum of human needs one small band that the heart and mind together tell you is the area in which you can make your best contribution.'"
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The National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Initiative began in 2000 with support from the John A. Hartford Foundation, and subsequently attracted additional funding partners in The Atlantic Philanthropies and Mayday Fund. The initiative's main goals are to increase the cadre of academic geriatric nurses, build leadership capacity in academic geriatric nurses, and build national collaboration and excitement about geriatric/gerontological nursing.
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) is the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society -- and its 5,500+ members -- is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA's structure also includes a policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and an educational branch, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.
The John A. Hartford Foundation is a private philanthropy working to improve the health of older Americans. After three decades of championing research and education in geriatric medicine, nursing, and social work, today the Foundation pursues opportunities to put geriatrics expertise to work in all health care settings by advancing practice change and innovation, supporting team-based care through interdisciplinary education of all health care providers, supporting policies and regulations that promote better care, and developing and disseminating new evidence-based models that deliver better, more cost-effective health care. The Foundation was established by John A. Hartford in 1929. Mr. Hartford and his brother, George L. Hartford, both former chief executives of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (the A&P grocery chain), left the bulk of their estates to the Foundation upon their deaths in the 1950s. Additional information about the Foundation and its programs is available at http://www.jhartfound.org.