Alumni Community Week Recap
This September, the Johns Hopkins Nurses’ Alumni Association (JHNAA) hosted its third annual Alumni Community Week to foster a sense of belonging and fellowship among all members of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing community.
The week included both in-person and virtual events. The virtual Mentoring Meet Up for Men in Nursing connected alumni with student mentees, fostering supportive conversations and guidance. In the first Dean’s Notebook lecture, Sarah Szanton engaged in a discussion with Baltimore City Councilwoman Danielle McCray about Neighborhood Nursing and its role in bringing preventive care to local communities. The week also featured the first Class of 1973 History Lectureship presented by Dr. Cindy Connolly, who highlighted the significance of nursing history. Finally, Southern California alumni and students gathered for an LA area meet-up where they reconnected with friends and met new members of the Hopkins Community.
We are grateful to all who participated in Alumni Community Week!
Alumni Awards
Spotlight of 2024 JHAA Awardees
2024 Heritage Award—Martha Hill served as dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing from 2001 until early 2014 and has been a member of the faculty since the school was established in 1983. As an educator, she is known for her mentorship of students and faculty members; as a researcher, for her investigations in preventing and treating hypertension and its complications and for the effectiveness of nurse-run clinics. Her expertise in community-based participatory research focuses on the integration of multi-professional health care to improve treatment and outcomes for vulnerable and underserved populations. From 1997-98, Martha served as president of the American Heart Association, the first non-physician ever named to that position.
2024 Outstanding Recent Graduate Award—Julie Jenkins is the Clinicians in Abortion Care Strategist & Training Program manager at the National Abortion Federation. She is a sexual and reproductive health nurse practitioner with more than 15 years of clinical experience across multiple organizations. Julie completed her doctoral studies JHU in 2022, focusing on executive leadership. She is an experienced educator, speaker, and trainer and is currently a member of the nursing faculty at Yale. She speaks nationally on the role of advanced practice clinicians in abortion care and on abortion provision, from in-clinic services to self-managed abortion. She provides training on abortion care and options counseling and consults on projects for various national organizations.
2024 Distinguished Alumna Award—Laura Wood, a former JHU Fralic Nursing Fellow and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow, has served on a variety of child- and education-focused nonprofit boards, and as a member of numerous national nursing advisory boards, including the Johns Hopkins University Nursing Advisory Board. As executive vice president patient care operations, system chief nursing officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, she leads the discipline of nursing and provides system-level oversight of patient care delivery throughout the organization’s network and satellite locations. Boston Children’s serves as the pediatric training center for Harvard Medical School, where nurses in concert with interprofessional care teams actively translate science to care delivery as part of the world’s largest pediatric research enterprise.
Class News
Rachel “Rae” Walker, ’07, ’13, served as the keynote speaker at the 2024 Zeigler Research Forum last month. The event was hosted by the University of Vermont College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
Manka Nkimbeng, ’19, has received a Bush Fellowship to develop a coalition of healthcare organizations devoted to the health of Black immigrants.
Jinhee Jeannie Nguyen, ’24, joined Huntington Health’s (Pasadena) executive management team as the Chief Nurse Officer.
Bernadette Thomas, ’11, was named the new chief health officer at Mosaic Community Health, a nonprofit community health center providing quality care for all in Central Oregon.
Melissa Hladek, ’18, was inducted into the class of 2024 American Academy of Nursing fellows.
These alumni were recently appointed to leadership roles at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing:
Yvonne Commodore-Mensah, ’14—associate dean for research
Jason Farley, ’03, ’08—associate dean for community programs and initiatives
Tammy Slater, ’11, ’14—associate director of the DNP Clinical Program ◼
In Memoriam
Elsa Eleanor Ayres Brenner, ’57
Mary Rex Keener Warfield, ’58
Rosemary Davis Berner Shaw, ’60
Rosemarie Cendrowski Russo, ’61
Mary Joyce Baxter Bickerstaff, ’66