NLN Honors the 2025 Centers of Excellence (COE) in Nursing Education

NLN Honors the 2025 Centers of Excellence (COE) in Nursing Education

Award Ceremony Set for the Honors Convocation at the NLN Education Summit in Orlando, Florida

Washington, DC – The National League of Nursing proudly announces the selection of 21 nursing education programs as 2025 NLN Centers of Excellence™ (COE) located throughout the United States and representing the spectrum of higher education in nursing, from certificate-granting programs through advanced-degree academic institutions. Formal recognition will take place at the Honors Convocation during the 2025 NLN Education Summit in Orlando, Florida, on Friday, September 19.

This year’s honorees include the first-ever winner of the COE for Creating Learning Environments that Impact Climate Change and Planetary Health. This COE category demonstrates how programs have achieved a level of excellence through curricular and other initiatives that address environmental hazards.

2025 NLN Centers of Excellence

Promotes the pedagogical expertise of faculty

• Chamberlain University College of Nursing
• Creighton University
• Francis Marion University
• University of Florida College of Nursing
• University of North Carolina Wilmington
• University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Nursing
  

Enhances student learning and professional development

• Duquesne University School of Nursing
• East Carolina University
• Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing
• Mercy University School of Nursing
• Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
• RWJ Barnabas Health/Trinitas School of Nursing
• Texas A&M University, College of Nursing
• University of Alabama at Birmingham
• University of South Florida College of Nursing
• Ursuline College
• Wallace State Community College

Advances the science of nursing education

• Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  

Creating environments that promote the pedagogical expertise of faculty

• UT Health Houston Cizik School of Nursing

Creating learning environments that impact climate change and planetary health

• MGH Institute of Health Professions
  

NLN Chair Patricia Sharpnack, DNP, RN, CNE, NEA-BC, ANEF, FAAN, Dean and Strawbridge Professor at the Breen School of Nursing and Health Professions at Ursuline College in Ohio, praised this year’s honorees, saying, “I am so appreciative of the magnitude of the effort it requires of everyone involved in educating an outstanding nursing workforce to earn this national recognition. Congratulations to all the wonderfully deserving 2025 NLN Centers of Excellence designees.”

NLN President and CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, said, “We have all heard, ‘It takes a village.’ Nowhere is that truer than in the shared vision and values, mutual support, respect, and inclusivity among faculty, leadership and students that must come together for an extraordinary nursing program to be nationally recognized for their innovation and commitment in becoming an NLN Center of Excellence.”

Information about the COE program and application process can be found at NLN.org. For more information about the 2025 NLN Education Summit, including online registration, visit Summit.NLN.org.

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