The most recent NAO award winners—Canary Savage Girardeau Cert ’55, who received the Distinguished Achievement Award, and Cassondra (Cassie) Dietrick ’19, who received the Outstanding Badger Nursing Award—serve as exemplary leaders in the profession and society.
Alumni Profile
One Family, Four Generations of Badger Nurses
Following in the footsteps of her great-grandmother, grandmother, and aunt, Emily Hanna is the fourth in her family to take part in UW’s nursing program. The generations of women in her family who studied nursing before her served as inspiration and motivation for her to pursue the same path.
Porter Scholarship Plants Legacy for Future Nurses
A Rhinelander, Wisconsin, native and proud School of Nursing alumna, Judy Porter wanted to provide the same educational opportunities that she had to future Badger nurses from northern Wisconsin. Her husband honored her last wish by establishing the Judy Porter Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Unleashing the Force of Transitional and Home Care
Dwayne Dobschuetz, APRN, Geriatric Nurse Practitioner at Northwestern Medicine and University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Nursing alumnus, started checking in on older patients, as he rode his bicycle home from work. The experience inspired him to go back to school at age 65 to become an advanced practice nurse, and led to his current home care role.
Catalyst for Change
“I’ve been called a catalyst before and I believe that I am one. Challenge the status quo in constructive ways so you can achieve results in the system,” says Rachel Azanleko-Akouete, a recent graduate of the master’s in public health program at UW–Madison and BSN alumna. “We really need to inspire that next generation of researchers and public health nurses.”
Family, Faith, Fellowship, and Fitness
For Uchenna Jones ’02, ’09, it’s all about family. As a labor and delivery nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, she helps start new families. And as the organizer of both the Madison Gospel 5K and the W1N Crew walking group and the co-founder of the Sole Sistas Run Madtown running group, she helps keep those families healthy.
UW Alumna Sadat Abiri’s Global Fight Against Mental Health Stigma
Sadat Abiri ’99, MSN ’10, MPH ’12 is a psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner and a mental health advocate, particularly for immigrants and the homeless. Abiri is bringing leaders and psychiatrists from Africa to Madison to continue their conversation about dispelling mental health myths and stigma as well as to increase access to mental health care.
Taking It All In
Emily Schumacher graduated in 2010 and entered practice in an oncology, neurology, and neurosurgery unit at American Family Children’s Hospital. Three years later, she enrolled part-time in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, which she will complete this spring. “I found what I was supposed to do. It was nursing,” she says. “It was a combination of all the things I love.”
UW Hmong-American Nurse Brings Her Community to the Doctor’s Office
Maichou Lor, who received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Nursing, was born in a refugee camp in Thailand before her family immigrated to Madison. Lor is the first Hmong-American nurse to earn a PhD in the U.S.
Learning in Loss
Nurses made a difference during the most difficult experience of her life. Now Chelsea Adams ’16 wants to do the same.