Jonas Center Honors Champions of Nursing

The Center Marks Its Milestone 10th Anniversary Year

NEW YORK, December 2, 2016 – The Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare will culminate its 10th anniversary year by recognizing champions of nursing across the healthcare system at an awards luncheon in December. The awards honor accomplishments of individuals and organizations dedicated to advancing the nursing profession through outstanding leadership in a field so essential to our health and well-being.

“Our honorees represent exceptional professionals from a variety of fields, including philanthropy, academia and arts,” said Donald Jonas, who co-founded the Center with his wife, Barbara Jonas. “It is of paramount importance that we recognize and support their continuous efforts to advance nursing through innovation, education, awareness building and promoting nursing leadership.”

This year’s honorees are:

Ms. Blaustein is an Emeritus assistant professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She was one of the original founders and a board member of the Baltimore Rape Crisis Center and the Alzheimer’s Disease Association of Maryland, and is the past president of the Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation, a longtime partner of the Jonas Center.

Started in 2007 as an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation under the leadership of Susan Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN and Susan Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Center to Champion Nursing in America believes that everyone in America can live a healthier life, supported by a system in which nurses are essential partners in providing health care and promoting health.

Dr. Fagin, Dean Emerita and Leadership Professor Emerita of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, is an Ambassador to the Jonas Scholar program and provides guidance for the Center’s strategic planning.

Frontier is the oldest and largest continually operating nurse-midwifery education program in the US and started the first family nurse practitioner program in the country, graduating nearly 4,000 nurses and midwives representing every US state and many foreign countries to date. Under the leadership of University President and Dean Susan Stone, DNSc, CNM, FAAN, FACNM, Frontier’s goal is to improve healthcare for families through increasing the number of well-prepared nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners.

Under the leadership of Executive Director Ahrin Mishan, the Foundation’s education initiatives center on the development of research and nurse-led innovation targeting areas of need, such as management of chronic illness, reducing disparities in care, and care for the aging population.

  • Carolyn Jones, Photographer & Filmmaker – Jonas Nurse Champion Award

Ms. Jones is the creator of a book and film, The American Nurse, focused on raising the volume of the nurse’s voice in this country, and the forthcoming film Defining Hope, which examines the dying experience through the eyes of nurses, and is supported in part by the Jonas Center.

“We congratulate and sincerely thank this year’s honorees for their professional and outstanding contributions to the vitally important field of nursing,” said Darlene J. Curley, CEO of The Jonas Family Fund and Executive Director of the Jonas Center.

Donald Jonas, Co-Founder, Jonas Center (fourth from the left) and Darlene Curley, CEO, Jonas Family Fund & Executive Director, Jonas Center (second from the right) with 2016 Jonas Awards Luncheon Honorees and other esteemed guests: (left to right) Carolyn Jones, Jonas Nurse Champion Award Recipient; Ahrin Mishan, The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation, Jonas Philanthropy Award Recipient; Dr. Jeanne Blaustein, Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation, who accepted the Jonas Nursing Leadership Award on behalf of Mary Jane Blaustein; Dr. Eileene Shake, Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA); Dr. Susan Stone, Frontier Nursing University, Jonas Nursing Education Award Recipient; Dr. Susan Reinhard, CCNA, Jonas Nursing Innovation Award Recipient; Dr. Claire Fagin, Jonas Ambassador Award Recipient; and Patricia Polansky, CCNA.

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About the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare

In 2006, Barbara and Donald Jonas established the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare, the leading national philanthropic funder dedicated to improving healthcare by advancing nursing scholarship, leadership and innovation. Its two main programs are the Jonas Nurse Leaders Scholar Program, which aims to address the dire shortage of nursing faculty by preparing nurses with doctoral degrees to step into this critical role, and the Jonas Veterans Healthcare Program, which seeks to improve the health of veterans by supporting doctoral-level nursing candidates committed to advancing veterans’ healthcare. These programs currently support more than 1,000 doctoral Nurse Scholars nationwide.