Distinguished Alumni Award
Nominate Distinguished Alumni Today and Recognize our Leaders!
Help recognize School of Nursing alumni who have made outstanding contributions to the nursing community. Share with us who you feel deserves the School of Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award, to be presented at each year’s Nursing Alumni Association Annual Luncheon. Use the links in the sidebar to find out more, and to make a nomination.
Nominations will be accepted through August 31, 2013. To nominate the individual you feel is most deserving of this Award, please fill out the Nomination Form or Nomination Young Alumni Form.
2012 School of Nursing Distinguished Young Alumna
This year’s Distinguished Young Alumni Award recipient is Kendra L. Pennington ’04: After graduating from UMass Amherst School of Nursing, Kendra took a Direct Commission as an Ensign in the United States Navy in August of 2004. She was assigned to a Fleet Hospital Bremerton at Naval Medical Center San Diego, California, and obtained her training certifications in ACLS, PALS, TNCC and IVCS and was an active member in the nurse corps community. She was awarded her critical care and medical surgical designations. Kendra was then FORWARD deployed to Branch Health Clinic Atsugi, Japan, where she assumed the duties as Division Officer and Clinic Manager for the Primary and the Urgent Care Clinics. Her passion for teaching and mentoring was evident in her development of a clinic training matrix, implementation of multiple in-services for her EMTs and active participation in the Navy’s medical mentoring program. Kendra was selected to fill a critical care billet on the Navy Hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, for its 2009 humanitarian mission “Continuing Promise” where she worked as a surgical triage and PACU nurse. The mission was extremely successful and provided medical treatment to more than 100,000 patients and performed 1,657 surgeries in seven third world countries over 4 months. Kendra is now stationed in Pensacola, Florida, at the Naval Hospital. She was selected to be a Quality Management Special Assistant to the Commanding Officer after returning home from deployment as a trauma nurse with the US Marine Corps 2nd Medical Battalion, Bravo Surgical Company. Assigned as a critical care nurse on Forward Operating Base Edinburgh, she provided care in the Shock Trauma Platoon, the Forward Resuscitative Surgical Suite and during medevacs in the most austere of conditions in Afghanistan. During this time she earned her Fleet Marine Force Qualified Officer qualification. Kendra is a staunch patient advocate and has assumed active roles in various committees including patient safety, customer relations, nursing quality improvement and remains clinically active in patient care by supplementing her hospitals PACU and is currently seeking her wound care certification. As an active mentor Kendra has arranged interviews and provided guidance to nursing students interested in a career with the Navy Nurse Corps. She recently was a guest speaker at the Naval Air Station Belle Chasse’s Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics base wise event. She spoke to high school students about college preparation, nursing school, Navy nursing and lead a first responder lecture and practice exercise for the Surgeon General. Kendra has most recently been selected for Lieutenant Commander. She plans to return to school to obtain an advanced degree in Education and Training Management to pursue educational leadership and development in the Navy.
2012 School of Nursing Distinguished Alumnae
One of the this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award recipient is Yadira Regueira ’04G: Yadira received her Ph.D. from UMass Amherst School of Nursing in 2004 and became an assistant professor at the School of Nursing at Inter American University of Puerto Rico. In 2005 she became Associate Professor at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus where she currently is also the Director of the Doctoral Program. Yadira collaborates with UMass Amherst in the distance learning doctoral program collaboration between the University of Puerto Rico and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has mentored many graduate students through their academic endeavors and is very much loved by her students. Yadira is coordinator of the Steering Committee for the University of Puerto Rico School of Nursing Research Center. Her NIH funded research involves health disparities in Latina women’s health.
Barbara E. Stanley ’00G: Barbara is known for her extensive work in the Western Massachusetts Community and outstanding contributions to the profession of Nursing. Since 2005, she has been a clinical assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, School of Nursing. Formerly she was deputy director of Health and Human Services for the city of Springfield and served two terms as president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association representing nurses at the state and national level. Barbara has discussed and informed the public, the press and the legislature on timely health care issues and has worked on behalf of nursing with organizations and leaders in Massachusetts and Washington, including former Governor Dukakis, the late Senator Kennedy and current members of the Congress and Senate. Barbara is an exemplary nurse. She has designed and opened a free standing Women’s Health Center affiliated with a Connecticut hospital and written, produced and hosted an American Academy of Nursing award winning community cable television program focused on health care issues. She has directed many public health programs and worked to increase their funding and make them more efficient. She currently teaches in all three undergraduate School of Nursing programs. She has developed numerous service learning projects in Western Massachusetts that have expanded students’ understanding of culturally diverse, vulnerable populations in Springfield and other communities. She has held leadership positions in organizations and outreach endeavors that work with disabled children, incarcerated adolescents, men and women, and those with incarcerated adolescents, men and women, and those with AIDS and related health concerns. Barbara Stanley is truly dedicated to the success of the UMass Amherst School of Nursing
