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Nursing Notables

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1960s
Dr. Annelle Brown Tanner, 69N, is the Louisiana Nurse of the Year for 2006. The Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations also named her a Louisiana Heroine for 2006 for coordinating United Way efforts to assist evacuees of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Last but not least, Annelle was inducted as president of the Nu Tau Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society.


1970s

Cynthia Leahy Belcher, 71N, retired in May 2006 as Assistant Professor of Nursing from Clemson University after 35 years of service.

Andrea (Andy) Lewyn Kravovsky, 76N, and Robin Burch Domm, 81N, worked at Camp Seafarer in Arapohoe, NC, a YMCA sailing camp for 650 girls. They served as nurse practitioners in the health clinic there last summer. They worked at the camp with friend and colleague Judy Carson, 76B.

Dr. Susan Sweat Gunby, 77N, dean and professor at Georgia Baptist College of Nursing at Mercer University in Atlanta, received the National Student Nurses Association Leader of Leaders Award at the April 2006 annual meeting. Sponsored by Elsevier Publishing, the award recognizes distinguished support and service to nursing students.
   
         
   
     
  From the Alumni President

This academic year has been very exciting. We have 208 BSN students and 166 MSN students enrolled in our programs, representing a rich diversity in background and life experience. Our current junior class members come from all over the United States and from countries around the world, including Ghana, Guyana, and Nigeria. There are eight men and 98 women. The average age is 26.
     As a member of the Admissions Committee, I had the privilege of reading many of the essays that accompanied their admission applications. I am continually struck by how many students decide to pursue nursing because of their own experiences with a nurse or nurses who made a remarkable difference in their lives. They have watched the example you have set, and they want to continue the tradition of caring and making a difference for others.
     Another tradition they are now immersed in is the commitment to professional values. For the past several years, a Gallup Poll has found nursing to be the public's most trusted profession. In keeping with this tradition, our students recently partnered with faculty and alumni to create what is to become an annual program to celebrate the affirmation of our values. This past fall, students, faculty, alumni, administration, and supporters from Emory Healthcare gathered at the school for an inaugural program that included the signing of a new pledge book proclaiming their personal commitment to professional values. The program was followed by the Woodruff Tea, a tradition begun by Nell Hodgson Woodruff at her home many years ago.
     Watching students interact with alumni was touching and inspirational. We can all be assured that the torch will be passed to a great new generation of nurses.

Sally T. Lehr, 65N, 76MN
President, Nurses Alumni Association


 
   
         
    1980s
Mary Elizabeth "Mimi" Jenko, 81N, published "Transcultural Nursing Principles: An Application to Hospice Care" in the May-June 2006 issue of the Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing. Mimi is a clinical nurse specialist with the Watson Clinic in Lakeland, FL.

Captain Kitty MacFarlane, 81N, 92MSN-MPH,
received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study women's health resources and health care issues in Afghanistan. A nurse-midwife and member of the U.S. Public Health Service, Kitty regularly travels to Afghanistan. She currently serves with CDC's Division of Reproductive Health.

Dr. Ganga Mahat, 87MSN,
a clinical associate professor at Rutgers College of Nursing at the State University of New Jersey, recently published two articles. "HIV/AIDS Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs Among Nepalese Adolescents" was published in the March 2006 issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. "Nepalese School-age Children's Self-Reported Fears and Coping Strategies" appeared in the Spring 2006 edition of the Journal of Cultural Diversity.

Lucy C. Willis, 87MSN-MPH, was elected to a three-year term on the executive board of the South Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution.
   
         
   
     
  Kicking it up a Notch  
   
When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Jim Deshotels, 95MSN-MPH, went to work with the New Orleans Health Department in the Superdome. "Like most people, I went into the Dome on Sunday, before the storm hit. I was one of the lucky ones who got out on Thursday, although I was angry that they evacuated us before the rest of the people."
     Deshotels began helping people long before Katrina. An ordained priest with the Roman Catholic Church, he is vice president for mission with the Daughters of Charity Services of New Orleans. "This job has offered some exciting, and frustrating, opportunities to be part of one small force for system change in New Orleans and Louisiana," he wrote to a friend on the School of Nursing faculty. "Katrina kicked up both the opportunities and the complexities by several notches. It's been a wild ride."
     The Daughters of Charity Services treat underserved people who fall outside the health care safety net, including homeless and migrant patients. Many are Hispanic, especially since the storm. "We get them into primary care, since most people who don't have insurance have no idea how to negotiate the health care system," he says.
     Before Katrina, the charity had a beautiful clinic less than 10 years old. The building was destroyed by the storm, and operations moved out to the Jefferson Parish Health Unit in Metairie. "I'm hardly ever there because I'm out seeing patients," Deshotels says.
    Though few federal dollars have trickled in, the government has promised that the Daughters of Charity clinic will be replaced. Three locations are planned, including a mobile clinic. One location, a geriatric clinic, opened in August near the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the neighborhoods devastated by Katrina, so that patients don't have to travel to the suburbs for care. "We're still operating on a very limited cash flow," Deshotels notes.
     As a young staff nurse, he was angered by the number of low-income patients who went unserved. He also admired how public health nurse practitioners worked with them. His dual interest in nursing and public health led him to Emory. After graduating, he returned to New Orleans to work as a nurse practitioner but had trouble fitting into the system. "Public health nursing in New Orleans has traditionally been run by black women, and very capably," he says. "So they weren't quite sure what to do with a white male nurse."
     Life smoothed out when he combined his work with the Catholic Church and health care. He was serving both missions and ministering to the needs of the poor in more ways than one.
     Recently, Deshotels rode back from a meeting in Baton Rouge accompanied by three nurses and some representatives of the United Methodist Church (UMC). "We think UMC will fund some medications and personal hygiene supplies for women who are homeless, and eventually more prenatal care," he says.
     The nurses with whom he traveled serve on the faculty at Louisiana State University. "We do different work, but we're all involved with improving things in the long run."
—Carol Pinto
 
   
         
    1990s
Born: To Beth Young Hew, 91OX, 93N, and husband, Maurice, a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, on July 23, 2006. She joins big brother Joshua.

Dr. Diane Padden, 94MSN,
received a PhD in nursing from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, in May. Dr. Padden is an assistant professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD. She also serves as acting chair of the Department of Health, Injury, and Disease Management. Additionally, Dr. Padden was awarded the Janet Rexrode Southby Prize in Nursing Research for her study on the health and well-being of women separated from active-duty military spouses during deployment.

Born: To Jenna Culbertson Carpinello, 98MSN-MPH, and her husband, Chris, a son, Joshua Logan, on April 14, 2006.

Born: To Jennifer Grass Durbin, 98N, 98MPH, and husband, Randy, 97MPH, a daughter, Joanna, on Nov. 18, 2005. She joins her siblings, Audrey and Riley.
   
         
   
     
  A Philatelic Fan of Nursing  
     
  These colorful stamps are part of a collection that belonged to the father of John Webster, 72C. Webster donated the collection to the School of Nursing after his father died. The stamps date from the 1920s to the 1990s and represent many countries. Webster and his mother are acquainted with nursing, having both worked at Emory University Hospital.  
     

     
  A Hospital Room with a View  
  The head architect needed to know if the design for a patient room at the new neuro-critical care unit at Emory University Hospital (EUH) would better suit how nurses work. So while he lay on the hospital bed in the full-scale model, he had himself intubated. Well, a nurse pretended to intubate him. The drill was videotaped and later used in a feedback session to refine the design.
     The nurse was Michelle Ossmann, 98N, 01MSN, who works at EUH and is currently a PhD student in architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology. In December, along with other students, she presented her final project in a collaborative Emory/Georgia Tech course that for the first time incorporated the disciplines of nursing, industrial design, architecture, computer science, systems engineering, and human computer interaction to design the patient room of the future.
     Gerri Lamb, a visiting scholar at the School of Nursing and one of the instructors for the course, took students on hospital tours to see rooms and talk with nurses about what works and what doesn't in the hospital environment. The students saw plenty of what fails to work, Lamb says—bathtubs that are inaccessible, awkward arrangements of patient beds, and limited space for family members and for nurses to work.
     School of Nursing Dean Marla Salmon says patient care and design are intrinsically linked, as the physical and emotional environment of the hospital contributes to patient safety and healing. She hopes the class will lead to a joint nursing and architecture degree between the two universities.
     Will Ossmann continue to work as a nurse after earning her architecture degree? "Of course. My nursing practice provides inspiration for new designs," she says.
 
     
  What does the new room look like?  
 
  • A large, widescreen computer monitor hangs on the wall facing the bed. Doctors access it to videotape an update for the patient's medical records or leave a message for the family.
  • A smaller screen sits in front of the patient, which can play the radio and television or display a clock when not in use. It also serves as the nurse call system with video chat capability.
  • Behind the bed is a wall of cabinets and drawers for clothing storage, a Murphy twin bed with a privacy screen for a family member, and a fold-down desk for a computer.
  • The shower is equipped with a seat that slides on a support rail that wraps around the perimeter of the bathroom. A vinyl screen can be pulled out from the wall to provide privacy for showering but is only waist high to enable help from a caregiver. A narrow drain snakes around the floor for easy cleaning.
  • A care cart stocks gloves, linens, and trash bags, and encases a plastic bin for needle disposal with a peek-a-boo window on the side to see when it's full. The cart splits into two so the mobile section can be extended over a patient bed to serve as a table.
 
     
   
         
    2000s
Laura E. Gallagher, 00MSN, received the Palmetto Gold Award from the South Carolina Nurses' Association. She is a clinical nurse specialist in emergency services at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Born: To Alison Walter Kyle, 00N, and her husband, David, their first child, Margaret Katharine ("Maggie"), on April 20, 2006. Alison currently works as a family nurse practitioner at the Ponce de Leon Center in midtown Atlanta. Part of the Grady Health System, the Ponce Center provides primary care and chronic disease management services for HIV/AIDS patients.

Married: Erin Toburen, 02N, and John Burkhalter on Sept. 9, 2006 at Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Atlanta. She is a clinical consultant with Welch Allyn.

Emily Mason, 04N, is the new clinical director at the Feminist Women's Health Center in Atlanta. The nonprofit organization caters to the reproductive health needs of women throughout the Southeast. Emily oversees operations at the Cliff Valley Clinic in DeKalb County, which includes the departments of reproductive medicine, gynecology and wellness services, research, and community outreach.
     Emily also was named an Outstanding Atlanta Honoree for 2006. Outstanding Atlanta honors leadership and community service in Atlantans between the ages of 21-36 who live or work in metro Atlanta and have distiniguished themselves in their careers or by community service. She was recognized along with nine others at the 38th Annual Outstanding Atlanta Awards in the Georgia-Pacific Auditorium in November.

Amy Parker, 05MSN-MPH, recently co-authored a study on the 2005 measles outbreak in Indiana that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
     Parker joined the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), a little known division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention responsible for solving public health puzzles, after graduation. The EIS is a premiere training and service assignment in epidemiology.

IN MEMORIAM

1930s
Sudie Nolan-Baker, 32N, on March 12, 2006, at 98. She was one of the original four visiting nurses in the Atlanta area and one of the original members of the March of Dimes collections campaigns in DeKalb County. She also served as director of the Central Presbyterian Baby Clinic for 25 years. Survivors include a daughter, Barbara J. Nolan.
   
         
   
     
  Friends of Nursing  
     
  Eleanor Low Richardson of Decatur, GA, on Feb. 21, 2006, at 92. A longtime member of the Georgia House of Representatives, Richardson championed many causes on behalf of women, children, the elderly, and the disabled. Among her many interests, she served with the Associates, the community group that promotes Emory's School of Nursing and provides scholarships for its students.
     Richardson served in the Georgia House from 1975 to 1990. During that time, she established insurance coverage for pregnancy complications, which she considered her proudest achievement. She also succeeded in having sexist language removed from state laws, reforming rape laws, improving legislation regarding child protection services and the disabled, and tightening professional standards for psychologists and speech pathologists. Beginning in 1989, she pushed for legislation requiring insurance companies to pay for tests to detect breast, cervical, and prostate cancer, which finally became law in 1992.
     Survivors include her husband, Merlyn Eldon Richardson, a daughter, two grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Anne Register Jones of Atlanta, on April 4, 2006, at 80. Her husband, the late Boisfeuillet Jones, was a longtime Emory leader and the first president of the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation. Mrs. Jones served on the board of the Emory Woman's Club and continued the family's endowment of the Boisfeuillet Jones Scholarship. The Boisfeuillet Jones Medal, also established in the family's honor, is awarded to students from each Emory undergraduate school, including the School of Nursing, for outstanding citizenship, leadership, and service to Emory and the community, academic performance, and the potential to become a "change agent" in their chosen profession and society at large. Nursing students Rachel Shaw, 03N, Denise Morris, 04N, Audrey Ezeike, 05N, and Nancy Hatcher, 06N, are past recipients of this award.
     Mrs. Jones was a trustee for Agnes Scott College, her alma mater. Her daughter, Laura Jones Hardman, 67C, is an officer on Emory's Board of Trustees and her son, Boisfeuillet Jones Jr., is publisher and chief executive officer of The Washington Post. Other survivors include a brother and five grandchildren.
 
   
   
     
   
         
    1940s
Miriam "Mim" Virginia Smith Egolf, 43N, of Franklin, TN, on March 16, 2006, at 74.

Mary Ann Beall, 45N, of Tampa, FL, on May 28, 2006, at 83. She retired from Willis A. Smith, Inc., after 29 years of service and was one of the original founders of Gulf Contracting, Inc. She is survived by her daughter and son.

Jane Murphy Fielder, 45N, of Half Moon Bay, CA, on Oct. 20, 2005, of ovarian cancer.

Wilma Cross DePaz, 46N, of Bluffton, SC, on Oct. 7, 2005, at 80. Survivors include a daughter, two sons, a brother, a sister, two grandsons, and one granddaughter.

Joan A. Jackson, 46N, of Elberton, GA, died March 21, 2006. She is survived by her husband, James.

Barbara G. Moss, 46N, of Richmond, VA, on October 6, 2006, at 81. She served as a nurse to her husband, Dr. John Langdon Moss, Sr., for most of her career. She was a long time member of the Seventh Street Christian Church, the Tuckahoe Women's Club, and the Richmond Academy of Medicine Auxillary. She is survived by her four children and two grandchildren.

Patricia Ann Waller Chambers, 47N, of East Point, GA, on Nov. 30, 2006. She worked as a registered nurse for 40 years in the newborn nursery at Georgia Baptist Hospita in Atlanta. She is survived by her three children and eight grandchildren.

Janice Sams Cole, 47N, 73MSN, of Fayetteville, GA, on March 31, 2006, at 82. She was a teacher and registered nurse and volunteered at Piedmont Fayette Hospital and at the Christian City Alzheimer's Cottage. She is survivied by her three children and six grandchildren.

Barbara Virginia Fox, 47N, of Atlanta, on Oct. 27, 2006, at 79. After graduating from Emory's nursing school, she served as a second lieutenant in the Korean War. Later, she worked at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta and at Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, GA. She is survived by her husband, Lionel, three children, and five granddaughters.

Mary Louise Deaton Strickland, 47N, of Decatur, GA, on July 20, 2006, at 79. A graduate of Oviedo High School in Florida before graduating from Emory's nursing school, she taught nursing at Miami-Dade Junior College. Survivors include three daughters, three sons, six grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Betty G. Eubanks, 48N, on April 13, 2005, at 77.

Peggy S. Caldwell, 49N, of Augusta, GA, on August 13, 2006, at 78. Her last nursing assignment was as the assistant to her husband in his surgical practice before they both retired in 1990. She served as a hospice volunteer and was a member of the Richmond County Medical Society Alliance, where she founded the Physician Wellness Fund. Surivivors include five sons and two daughters.

1950s
Betty Pilcher Spence, 51N, of Albany, GA, on March 12, 2006, at 75. She pursued her nursing career at Emory University Hospital and at St. Mary's and Athens Regional hospitals in Athens. After her family moved to Albany, she worked at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and was an instructor for the practical nursing class at Albany Vocational School. She founded a program in Albany to fight drug abuse among teens and young adults. She also chaired the Georgia Council Against Drug Abuse during the administrations of Governors Jimmy Carter and George Busbee. Survivors include her husband, C. Norman Spence, two daughters, two grandchildren, and a sister.


Helen S. Smith, 52N, of Cartersville, GA, on July 29, 2006, at 74. She is survived by her husband, Carl.

Aileen S. Prevost, 57N, of Anderson, SC, on July 29, 2005, at 81. Survivors include her husband, William.

Jean Ray, 57N, of Andalusia, AL, on Jan. 8, 2006. Survi-vors include her daughter, Carissa Ray.

Elizabeth G. Green, 58N, of Chattanooga, TN, on Jan. 22, 2006. She taught medical and surgical nursing, beginning at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga. She was known for a lifetime of service in nursing and for her legendary teaching methods at Chattanooga State Technical Community College. She joined the faculty at Chattanooga State after the Erlanger nursing program closed in the 1970s.

Patricia Ann Hardman, 59N, of Atlanta, GA, on Sept. 9, 2006, at 69. After earning her nursing degree at Emory, she completed advanced classes at Columbia University in New York to become a rehabilitation nursing specialist. She then joined Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, where she worked for 30 years as a rehab nursing specialist until she retired in 1992. She also served as a member of the United States Air Force Reserve, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel before her retirement from the reserve in 1996. As an Air Force officer, she performed a variety of nursing and supervisory duties and taught nursing classes. She earned the Air Force Meritorious Service Award and was appointed to the Dobbins Air Force Base Advisory Council as an officer representative from the 94th TAC Hospital.
     Patricia was appointed to the Georgia Workmen Compensation Advisory Board by then Governor Jimmy Carter in 1974, where she was instrumental in the enactment of the Subsequent Injury Fund. She also served on the board of directors of the Georgia chapter of the American Rehabilitation Nurse Association and volunteered at Grady Memorial Hospital. Survivors include a niece and nephew.

1960s
Dr. Virginia Murphy Harmeyer, 61MSN, of Valdosta, GA, on March 9, 2006, at 90. An expert in public health and maternal-child nursing, she served as professor and director of the Division of Nursing at Valdosta State University from 1972 to 1981. Prior to serving on the faculty there, she taught at Northwestern Louisiana State College, Southeastern Louisiana College, and Murray State University in Kentucky. She also served as a maternal-child health nursing consultant for the State of Utah Department of Public Health. Early in her career, she was an instructor with the Visiting Nurse Society in Washington, DC, a public health nurse in Lafayette, GA, and a U.S. Navy staff nurse during World War II.
     Virginia was active in a number of organizations in the Valdosta area and received several service awards, including the Distinguished Senior Georgian from the Georgia General Assembly in 1997 and the Aging Service Award from the South Georgia Council on Aging in 1995. Survivors include two daughters.

Reba Hayes, 65N, of Brentwood, TN, on October 23, 2006, at 83.

1970s
Helen Rasberry Jones, 70MSN, of Brandon, MO, on Dec. 5, 2005, at 65.

Nancy Ruth Luper McInnis, 71MSN, of Pfafftown, NC, on July 27, 2006, at 60. She was an associate professor of nursing at Winston-Salem State University and taught nursing for 37 years. Survivors include her husband, Campbell, a daughter, and a son.

Thomas O. Clark, Jr., 72N, of Westwood, AL, on Dec. 2, 2006. Survivors include his wife, Lloyd Clark, and four children.

Dr. Katherine L. Momeier, 73N, of Sullivan's Island, SC, on Feb. 9, 2006. She was a graduate of the University of Georgia Veterinary School, where she received the Patricia Lynn Burton Award and the Merck Veterinary Clinical Award. She was active in the American and South Carolina veterinary medical associations and served as secretary of the Trident Veterinary Medical Association. Survivors include two sons, her mother, and a brother.

1980s
Gloria Jean McCormick-Davis, 81MSN, 83MPH, of Decatur, GA, on March 6, 2005, at 52.
   
         
         
         
         
     
 

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