TruMerit & NLN Honor Inaugural Winners of Distinguished Emerging Nursing Scholar Award

TruMerit & NLN Honor Inaugural Winners of Distinguished Emerging Nursing Scholar Award

Award Presentation to Two Post-Doctoral Researchers Set for 2025 NLN Education Summit

Washington, DC – TruMerit™ and the National League for Nursing proudly announce the first TruMerit / NLN Distinguished Emerging Nursing Scholar Award winners: Madison Lee Mason, PhD, a post-doctoral scholar at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, and Caitlin Nye, PhD, RN, NPD-BC, CHSE, CNE, a clinical assistant professor and director of the RN-BS Program at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University College of Nursing in Syracuse.

The exciting new co-created awards program to honor post-doctoral career nursing education researchers was introduced in February, when TruMerit still operated under the name Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS International).

Drs. Mason and Nye will each receive $10,000 in recognition of their distinctive original and continuing scholarship dedicated to the advancement of teaching and learning in nursing education. In addition to the cash reward, each Emerging Nursing Scholar will be supported throughout the year by TruMerit and the NLN Foundation for Nursing Education with widespread distribution of their research findings and evolving investigations in both organizations’ publications, websites, and social media channels, and through other opportunities to reach stakeholders.

That visibility begins during the 2025 NLN Education Summit, September 17-19 in Orlando, Florida. Drs. Mason and Nye will have their scholarship showcased before the top conference of academic leaders, faculty, and students across the nursing education community. Also in attendance will be key public health policymakers and executives of health and hospital systems.

Dr. Mason earned her PhD in psychological sciences in May at Vanderbilt under the direction of Dr. Angela McNelis. Her dissertation focused on developing and evaluating a personalized guided reflection system following clinical simulations, designed to complement traditional debriefing for nursing students. Dr. Mason’s research demonstrated that the tool significantly improved nursing students’ confidence and metacognitive judgment accuracy. In her postdoctoral work, she is deepening her expertise in simulation pedagogy and competency-based education to advance the system’s development, both its theoretical foundation and its practical application from administrative, instructional, and student perspectives. 

Dr. Nye completed her doctoral degree in nursing under the direction of Amy Hequembourg, PhD, at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Nursing. With a commitment to advancing health equity and inclusivity for the LGBTQ+ community, Dr. Nye has described her aim of building confidence in pre-licensure nursing faculty through her scholarship:

Even in contentious, unsupportive, or hostile political and higher education contexts, teaching praxis grounded in health equity is critical for the future of nursing education. My research explores the experiences of pre-licensure nursing faculty with LGBTQ+ inclusivity. My dissertation study demonstrated that  faculty need to build confidence—not only foundation knowledge—to incorporate LGBTQ+ health topics into their teaching. My post-doctoral research will focus on interventions to enhance faculty confidence with and commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusivity. Simulation offers powerful professional development opportunities for nurse educators. The ‘safe container’ of simulation may enhance faculty confidence with and commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusivity.

“Drs. Mason and Nye represent a promising future for nursing education by helping to build a strong and diverse nursing workforce. We applaud them for working to promote critical thinking and health equity. The TruMerit / NLN Distinguished Emerging Nursing Scholar Award represents our investment in their future, providing meaningful financial support, along with the guidance and encouragement of more senior colleagues who support their success,” said NLN Foundation Chair Patrick Robinson, PhD, RN, ACRN, CNE, ANEF, FAAN, vice president of nursing at Pacific College of Health and Science.

“The achievements and the dedication of our first two awardees speak to the enormous potential of this program to help accelerate nurse-led innovation by supporting and highlighting pacesetting scholarship in nursing education. We congratulate Drs. Mason and Nye for their innovative spirit and their determination to address nursing workforce development challenges and advance the profession at large. They have set an admirable benchmark to inspire future candidates for this award,” said Peter Preziosi, PhD, RN, CAE, President and CEO of TruMerit.

In future award cycles, as in this one, eligible applicants must have completed their doctoral dissertations on any topic related to nursing education within two years of the award presentation date. They will have committed to the pursuit of a career in nursing education research intended to have a significant, measurable impact on health care education systems worldwide. Preference will be shown toward candidates from developing and middle-income nations.

For more details, visit NLN.org.

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