NLN Honors Leading Nurse Educators for Lifetime Achievement with NLN President’s Award

NLN Honors Leading Nurse Educators for Lifetime Achievement with NLN President’s Award

Honorees Celebrated at NLN 2026 Education Summit, September 23-25, in Washington, DC

Washington, DC — The National League for Nursing will honor two outstanding nurse educators as winners of the 2026 NLN President’s Award. This distinctive and high honor recognizes prominent leaders in nursing education whose lifetime career achievements deserve public and professional acclaim. This year’s honorees are:

• Antonia Villarruel, PhD, RN, FAAN, Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
• Ena Williams, PhD, DSc (Hon), MBA, RN, CENP, FAAN, FADNL, FSIEN, FNYAM, President, American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL)
  

The two leaders will accept the award during a special presentation at the 2026 NLN Education Summit in Washington, DC, September 23-25.

NLN Chair Yolanda VanRiel, PhD, RN, MEDSURG-BC, OCN, CNE, ANEF, FAAN, chair of the Department of Nursing, North Carolina Central University and patient placement coordinator at First Health of the Carolinas-Moore Regional Hospital, said, “Congratulations to Drs. Villarruel and Williams on this well-deserved honor. Together they represent the highest ideals of nursing education, which are to advance patient care and healing through their students, whose knowledge and expertise they have so brilliantly nurtured.”

NLN President and CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, said, “The National League for Nursing is proud to honor these two amazing colleagues. Their many accomplishments demonstrate their decades of leadership and impact on generations of nursing graduates and the fields of nursing education and health care.”

As dean of Penn Nursing, Dr. Antonia Villarruel leads the school in meeting its core mission of advancing science, promoting equity and demonstrating practice excellence. As a bilingual and bicultural researcher, her career has been grounded in these values, providing the foundation for her extensive research and practice experience in the Latino community, promoting health and health equity for this often-marginalized population. She also serves a dual role at the school; in addition to the deanship, she directs the WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing and Midwifery Leadership.

Her long record of achievement includes holding key leadership positions in nursing, government and health care, among them: inducted fellow of the American Academy of Nursing; member of the National Academy of Medicine and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; chair of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Culture of Health Program Advisory Committee; co-chair of the Strategic Advisory Council of the AARP/RWJ Future of Nursing Campaign for Action; and former vice chair of the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

A transformative health care executive and national speaker, AONL President Dr. Ena Williams traces her remarkable career journey from frontline operating room nurse in Jamaica, followed by 33 years at the Yale-New Haven Health System, where she rose to senior vice president and system chief nurse executive. In that role, she broke structural barriers as the first internal nurse and first nurse of color to lead the system’s 9,000-nurse workforce across seven hospitals.

Throughout her career, Dr. Williams has been committed to strengthening the voice of nursing, championing professional governance and elevating clinical care. Under her strategic guidance, the Yale-New Haven system secured multiple prestigious ANCC Magnet® designations. Deeply committed to fostering future talent, she secured ANCC accreditation for the system's Nurse Residency Program and served as the senior nurse sponsor for systemwide leadership development initiatives, directly cultivating the next generation of nurse leaders.

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