Imagining the Future with Hope
With Tad Worku, MSN, RN, FNP-BC, CEN, ACC
As we look to the next 100 years for the School of Nursing, our future will continue to be shaped by Badger nurses who innovate, advocate, and lead change by doing their part in their time. How can we keep our vision for transformation from feeling like an overwhelming expectation?
The 2025 Littlefield Leadership Lecture explored the role of hope and connection as keys to advancing our shared aspiration. Executive coach, keynote speaker, singer/songwriter, and family nurse practitioner Tad Worku, MSN, RN, FNP-BC, CEN, ACC, presented “Imagining the Future with Hope” to inspire a mindset for purposeful leadership. Tad’s gift of music, storytelling, and cultivating connection resonates with nurses and others who aspire to be a force for positive change—in and beyond health care.
Thank you to everyone who joined us on Monday, October 6th, 2025, in Cooper Hall for the lecture and reception, or viewed the livestream remotely.
About the Littlefield Leadership Lectures
Annual Littlefield lectures highlight nurse leaders and reflect the complexity of healthcare, changing and aging populations, scientific discoveries, innovations, and more. The lectures are valued by researchers, educators, practitioners, students, and members of the healthcare community and beyond.
Inspired and supported by the Friends of Littlefield, the Littlefield Leadership Lecture is named after Dean Emerita Vivian Littlefield, who led the UW–Madison School of Nursing from 1984 through 1999.
Dean Littlefield’s attendance at the lectures was a cherished opportunity to reconnect with her network of dear friends and colleagues. Since her death in August 2023, she is missed but remembered for her dedication to improving health through research, education, practice, and policy.
We thank the Friends of the Littlefield Leadership Lecture series for their ongoing support of this annual event, which reflects the School’s mission and vision.
Past Lectures
25th Annual Littlefield Lecture
Building on a Legacy: Preparing Nurse Leaders to Meet Future Health Needs
Playlist of Past Lectures
Watch lectures from 2016 to the present.
“For more than two decades, Littlefield Leadership Lectures have reflected the limitless ways that nurses impact the profession and society. These annual talks are more than a valued tradition; they are an opportunity to celebrate the legacy of leadership that characterizes nursing.”
Linda D. Scott, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FADLN, FNAP, FAAN, dean and professor, School of Nursing