NLN Honors 2025 NLN Award Winners

NLN Honors 2025 NLN Award Winners

Honors Convocation Set for NLN Education Summit, September 17-19 in Orlando, Florida

Washington, DC – The NLN Awards, named for three luminaries in nursing education, will be presented at the 2025 NLN Education Summit in Orlando, Florida, part of a special Honors Convocation ceremony. The annual NLN Awards honor individuals of stature and distinction within nursing education and in the wider field of American health care. Honorees are deemed by the NLN Awards Committee to have significantly contributed to the National League for Nursing mission of promoting excellence in nursing education to build a strong and diverse nursing workforce that advances the health of the nation and the global community.

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, said, “On behalf of the NLN Board of Governors, I extend our heartfelt congratulations to our NLN Award winners for their well-deserved recognition that reflects their extraordinary accomplishments and decades of leadership in transformative excellence for nursing education and public health.” 

“The National League for Nursing proudly recognizes these outstanding leaders who have proven steadfast in their personal and professional determination to transform nursing education. We honor their work to advance the essential goals of making outstanding health care accessible and equitable to patients and families living in diverse communities here in America and around the world,” said NLN President and CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN.

The NLN Mary Adelaide Nutting Award

Outstanding Teaching or Leadership in Nursing Education

Mary Anne Rizzolo, EdD, RN, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH

Mary Anne Rizzolo has focused her career on exploring new technologies, determining how they can inform and educate nurses, and operationalizing their delivery. She pioneered the development of screen-based simulations that won national and international awards and created one of the first websites in the world to offer continuing education, journal articles, and networking opportunities for nurses.  Dr. Rizzolo served on the Society for Simulation in Healthcare’s Board of Directors and Certification Committee, and she chaired the Credentialing Commission and the committee that developed the SSH Academy. She also served on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Nursing and as president of the Global Network for Simulation in Healthcare.

During her tenure at the National League for Nursing, Dr. Rizzolo co-led, with Dr. Pamela Jeffries, the Simulation Research Project, the SIRC Development Project, the ACE.S unfolding cases, vSim projects, and the project to explore the use of simulation for high stakes assessment. She also founded the Leadership Development Program for Simulation Educators.

The NLN Isabel Hampton Robb Award

Outstanding Leadership in Clinical Practice

Carolyn Clevenger, RN, DNP, AGPCNP-BC, GNP-BC, FAANP, FGSA, FAAN

Carolyn Clevenger, gerontological nurse practitioner, is a professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. She is a fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, the Gerontological Society of America, and the American Academy of Nursing. Her research focuses on the geriatric nurse practitioner workforce, psychoeducation programs for dementia family caregivers, and new models of care.

Dr. Clevenger is the founder and director of the Emory Integrated Memory Care practice. She has led or collaborated on a variety of psychoeducation programs for dementia family caregivers, including Savvy and Tele-Savvy Caregiver, Caregiving during Crisis, Caregiving While Black, Caregiver as Navigator, and most recently, Caregiver Bootcamp.

She earned her BSN from West Virginia University, her MSN from Emory University, and her DNP from the Medical College of Georgia. Dr. Clevenger completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The NLN Lillian Wald Humanitarian Award

Irene Crabtree Felsman, DNP, MPH, RN, C-GH

Irene Felsman is an associate clinical professor at the Duke University School of Nursing, and an affiliate faculty with Duke Global Health Institute/Center for Global Mental Health. Her expertise includes global and community/public health, with an emphasis on community engagement in the development of culturally aligned interventions to improve health and access to care for women and children in diverse settings.

She has lived and worked in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the U.S. in the capacity of program advisor, consultant, clinician, and educator. Her current scholarly work is focused on health improvement for refugees and Latino immigrants resettled in the U.S. Some of her recent work includes the training of Latino community health workers to provide community/family based mental health interventions, and the use of storytelling as an alternative psychosocial intervention and advocacy tool for resettled refugees.

For more information about the NLN Awards and the NLN Education Summit, visit NLN.org.

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