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Dr. Barbara Morrison PhD, APRN-CNM

Dr. Barbara Morrison, Ph.D., APRN-CNM, is recognized by Continental Who’s Who as Pinnacle Professional in the field of Healthcare Consulting.

Advocating, Educating and Inspiring Health Care Improvement for Newborns & their Families through Kangaroo (skin-to-skin) Care and Breastfeeding. Advocating, Educating and Inspiring optimal, ecological newborn care. Separating mother-infant dyads is like throwing a pebble into a quiet pool. Circles of ripples expand out and keep on going. You don’t know where the ripples will end up - but they will effect some distant shore. Rather than looking at the pebble’s splash it is time to look beyond to the impact of the ripples. The amazing newborn is my professional inspiration — newborns/neonates (first 30 days after birth) are so fragile yet have so many innate abilities. Neonates and infants are so immature they constantly need their mother or other primary caregiver, thus they remain a dyad even after birth. Given the correct habitat, skin-to-skin on mother’s chest (Kangaroo Care), neonates feel protected, comfortable, secure, have easy access to food and stay warm. This is a neonate’s home outside the womb. Here they get their first lessons in emotional and state control, learn non-verbal communication, establish strong attachments, and hard-wire their social brain. During the first three years an infant’s brain grows from 25% of adult brain weight to 80% of adult brain weight, making 1,000,000-2,000,000 neural synapses per minute. In so many ways newborns and neonates are amazing and I want to continue to advocate for the best care for optimal development.

Founder, President & CEO, DrBarbCN, LLC

 As a passionate advocate, educator and scholar I started DrBarbCNM, LLC as an education and consulting agency with a focus on Kangaroo Care (KC), skin-to-skin, chest-tochest holding of diaper clad newborn infants and neonates, and breastfeeding. My aim is to provide education to health professionals and parents regarding the implications and importance of Kangaroo Care and breastfeeding to the social, behavioral and cognitive development of every newborn and infant. With my comprehensive perinatal education (teaching maternal-newborn nursing, nurse-midwife) and experience, and more recent synthesis of the psycho-neuro-endocrineepigenetic evidence from a vast, multi-discipline scientific literature, I have constructed a theoretical framework interlacing the impact of pregnancy, birth, culture and stressors and the significance of skin-to-skin contact, Kangaroo Care and frequent, prolonged holding on breastfeeding and infant development. Such a complete, complex synthesis of the evidence and evolutionary practices cannot be found in healthcare textbooks or literature. It is my mission to provide explanation of the interplay as described above translated into language a lay person can comprehend to modify current childcare practices to optimize infant and parental development.

Associate Professor in the Janice M. Riordan Distinguished Professorship in Maternal Child Health, Wichita State University, College of Health Professions, School of Nursing

As a senior faculty member I teach breastfeeding, evidencebased nursing and maternal-child nursing courses. I am developing a graduate Breastfeeding and Human Lactation certificate program as well as new courses related to the scientific evidence of human lactation, and the impact of touch and the psycho-neuro-endocrinology of breastfeeding and Kangaroo (skin-to-skin) Care. Another aspect of my endowed chair faculty position is to develop a research program with grant funding. Wichita and Sedgwick County have a tremendous problem with infant mortality, especially among the African-American population. While numerous programs have been implemented to educate new parents on safe sleep, purple crying and other measures to protect infants, infant mortality remains a major community concern. My interest is to implement a community-based participatory research program to discover what community members see as needs for peri-partum care and ways to improve the well-being of neonates and infants. It is a privilege to reach beyond the university walls to become a community leader and change agent.

 Educated at three nationally top ranked nursing schools in the US:

• Columbia University, NYC...............................BS Nursing

• University of Washington Seattle ......................MN Primary Health Care/Family Nurse Practitioner

• University of Illinois, Chicago...........................Post-masters certificate, Nurse-Midwifery PhD, Nurse-Midwifery/Maternal-Child Health Nursing

Gaining cultural competence: Location and relocation Residences —

New Carlisle, OH • Ithaca, NY • Alliance, OH • Inner-city Pittsburgh, PA • Cincinnati, OH • Traverse City, MI • Wooster, OH • Upper west side Manhattan, NYC • Seattle, WA • Hyden, KY • Decatur, IL • Shaker Heights/Cleveland, OH • Wichita, KS Travels — Across US to New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and back • Dundee, Scotland (3 month pastoral exchange) • Fairbanks, AK to Traverse City, MI along the Alaskan Highway and across Canada • Kentucky to Fairbanks, AK • Sailed the British Virgin Islands • Sailed the San Juan Islands, Washington • Germany with high school German Teacher • Europe with American Youth Orchestra and Chorus • Blaubeuren, Germany, intensive German study • Miraj, Maharashtra, India, train trip south to Kodaikanal • Alaska, in person & vicariously • Kentucky to Fairbanks, Alaska via Alaska Marine Highway • Hong Kong & Southern China x2 (to pick-up my daughters) • Brazil, Quebec, & Rwanda for International Network of Kangaroo Mother Care Biennial Workshops

What do...

- Nursing educator

- Kangaroo Care

- Breastfeeding

- BabyTALK and Touchpoints

- Normal, natural pregnancy and birth

- Frontier Nursing Service

- Nursing and nurse-midwifery,

- Adopting two Chinese girls who were abandoned at birth,

- Living on both coasts and numerous places in-between

- NBAS (Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale),

- Dr. Susan Ludington-Hoe and Dr. Gene C. Anderson

- Adaptive Leadership...

have to do with the professional development of Dr. Barbara Morrison, PhD, RN, APRN-CNM, Associate Professor in the Janice M. Riordan Distinguished Professorship in the Janice M. Riordan Distinguished Professorship in Maternal Child Health? Everything, as each item in the list above represents a milestone or significant influence on my journey to now.

Historic and Familial Influences

A PK (preachers kid) • Eldest child of five and eldest grandchild • Granddaughter of missionaries in China • 4th generation college educated woman • Women’s Rights Movement • Civil Rights Movement • Gender Rights Movement • Women’s Reproductive Rights So many hopes and expectations were placed on me as I was growing-up. A perfect storm of circumstances: I am the first child of a Presbyterian pastor and a mother who was born in China to missionary parents; I am the oldest of my generation with a brother and two male cousins following in quick succession; and both of my grandmothers graduated from college, one from Smith and one from Vassar and my mother has both bachelors and masters degrees (my great grandmother also attended college), meant high expectations for my life achievements. While initially my goal was to complete my bachelors degree, get married and have a large family like my parents, the path diverged. The less traveled path led me to Seattle to begin my nursing career. I quickly decided I was strong and independent enough to create a home on my own and set advancement and educational goals. Historical events impact all of our lives. Growing up during the Civil Rights Movement strongly influenced my beliefs about equality, inequities and disparities; in the 1960s & 1970s racial equality, 1970s-1990s women’s equality, 1990s & 2000s gender equality and now continuing national and international efforts for women’s rights and reproductive rights. Family values stressed social justice, forming a foundation for equal treatment and opportunity for all. These values were reinforced when the family moved to inner-city Pittsburgh and I experienced race riots throughout my middle and high school years. Challenges during my high school years included feeling like a second class citizen as it seemed my brother was favored because he was the eldest male in the family. I felt I was “not as intelligent” and my views were not respected. At times I did not feel as an equal member of the family. But what good preparation, since as a nurse, especially a highly intelligent and educated nurse, I still feel disrespected and my ideas are devalued at times. So I’ve worked harder, searched the literature in greater depth, synthesized the evidence from numerous disciplines so all my views and presentations are supported by the science. Certainly tenants of the women’s or feminist movement, seeking equality and recognition in the work force, breaking through the glass ceiling, resonate with and motivate me to succeed in sharing my passions and very important messages for all newborns/infants and their families.

Location & Relocation: Gaining Cultural Competence Family Residences New Carlisle, OH • Ithaca, NY • Alliance, OH • Inner-city Pittsburgh, PA • Cincinnati, OH • Traverse City, MI Personal Residences Wooster, OH • Upper west side, NYC • Seattle, WA • Hyden, KY • Decatur, IL • Shaker Heights/Cleveland, OH • Wichita, KS Family Travels Across US to New Mexico, CO, Wyoming and back • Dundee, Scotland (3 month pastoral exchange) • Sailed the British Virgin Islands • Sailed San Juan Islands • Washington Personal Travels Germany with high school German Teacher • Europe with American Youth Orchestra and Chorus • Blaubeuren, Germany, intensive German study • Miraj, Maharashtra, India with train trip south to Kodaikanal • Alaska, in person & vicariously • Kentucky to Fairbanks, Alaska via Alaska Marine Highway • Hong Kong & Southern China x2 • Kigali, Rwanda How fortunate I have been to be a part of a family who loves to travel and move to radically different locations! One learns so much and gains appreciation for different ways of being when immersed in a new culture. Continuing to grow in cultural competence has broadened my perspectives, teaching me to be more inclusive and accepting. Practically, this means interacting with each patient, client or student as unique individuals who can achieve any goal they set for themselves. I find it rewarding to assist young mothers, especially African-American mothers, a population known for low breastfeeding rates, initiate breastfeeding in the first days after their babies are born. I find many of them are very committed and need a cheerleader, not a provider who assumes the clients will not succeed because they are young, perhaps poor, and a person of color.

Education and Teaching

My professional career has developed in ways I never expected when I graduated from high school. With cornerstones of compassion, curiosity, social justice and motivation, I reached beyond the limitations and expectations of family and society to grow my passions and climb to new heights. A very solid foundation formed through family, nuclear and extended, love and life, growing up in the church, moving, traveling and so many other opportunities. The walls of education, career experiences, love for learning, and enthusiastically accepting new challenges are the framing. Entering the ground floor, my trip to India after my sophomore year in college was pivotal in my decision to become a nurse. As a volunteer at Miraj Medical Center I realized nurses had much greater, continuous contact with patients than did the physicians. Nurses did more than “fix” the problem, they cared for the whole person, a philosophy that resonated with mine. Additionally, the greater patient contact was what I wanted in my career. The India trip was seminal for my personal life as well. as a visit to an orphanage planted the seed to adopt several infants when growing my family. So many children without families! So many infants and toddlers in the nursery, receiving little adult attention. Also planted was the seed of my passion for newborns and their families. Other rooms on the ground floor included completing a BA in Biology at the College of Wooster after completing my Independent Study entitled Endopolygalacturonase in Pisum Sativum. My interest in biology came to the fore again when I became interested in the neuro-endocrinology of skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding. From Wooster I went to Columbia University in NYC for a BS in Nursing. My nursing education focused on health promotion, wellness and leadership beyond the hospital walls. Leaving Columbia knowing I would pursue a Master’s Degree to become a nurse practitioner, I moved to Seattle to start my nursing career. My first nursing position providing primary care on a surgical floor and in-house float pool at Swedish Hospital solidified my basic nursing knowledge and skills. Moving up a level I accepted a night shift position in the Labor and Delivery Unit. Suddenly I found my niche. I loved supporting expectant mothers through labor and caring for motherbaby couplets. The hospital provided extensive didactic and clinical training, thus I started working with a strong foundation in normal birth. Laboring mothers, having taken childbirth classes (some of which I taught) came prepared for normal, natural births. Epidurals were just being introduced, thus as the labor and birth nurse I did a lot of coaching and supporting, learning numerous non-pharmacological interventions for managing discomforts of labor. Seeking even greater autonomous practice before entering graduate school, I relocated from Seattle to Hyden and Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) in the hollers of eastern Kentucky. Frontier Nursing Service is/ was well known as a Nurse Practitioner/ Nurse-Midwifery service started by Mary Breckenridge in 1925 to provide healthcare for children in remote rural areas. The advanced practice of nursemidwifery was created by Breckinridge by combining the knowledge and skills of American nurses with those of English midwives, creating one of the first two nurse-midwifery programs in the US. And, indeed, I practiced autonomously as the first registered nurse and Acting Head Nurse of the maternity unit. Because of a low census I also had time to learn more about newborns, specifically newborn assessments. How amazing are those little ones. After almost a year of experience in an healthcare system where nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners were the primary care givers and physicians cared for patients with health concerns outside the scope of advanced practice nurses, I was ready to return to Seattle to start the nurse practitioner program. Moving into a larger room my education again focused on health promotion,

 illness prevention, and primary care. With experiences in labor and birth and at FNS Service, my patient population focus narrowed to women’s health with a focus on the reproductive years and breastfeeding. For my thesis I assessed adolescents’ attitudes regarding abortion. In recognition of my leadership and education accomplishments I was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau, the nursing honor society. Where to now? Nurse-friendly Washington State had a large number of advanced practice nurses. Illinois looked like a good option. Oh how wrong could I be! (below) I was offered a position as solo provider in a new practice in Chicago based on my U of W practitioner education and even as a new practitioner I could meet the challenge. But, before accepting the position (and not wanting to live in a big city again) I returned to my parents’ home in central Illinois to explore a maternity nursing faculty position at a local, small, liberal arts university. To my surprise I was offered the position before I had even arrived home 30 minutes after the interview. So, I relocated to Decatur, IL to augment my passion for teaching in nursing education. Waiting for the semester to start, I took a staff nurse position on the maternity unit of a local hospital. Shock of all shocks: birthing practices were 20 years behind the practices in Seattle. Nurses gave up their seats when a physician entered the nurses’ station and carried patient charts as they made rounds. And, advanced nursing practice, while delineated in the nurse practice act, was forever being challenged as practicing medicine without a license or collaborating physicians were hassled. So, besides teaching, I became a big fish in a small pond, being very involved in seeking legal recognition for advanced nursing practice by creating positions on the Board of Nursing for nurse practitioners, nurse-midwives, nurse anesthetists and clinical nurse specialists. Fifteen years later the advanced practice nurses gather to celebrate passage of advanced practice certification legislation. Getting the legislation passed took the energy of at least two generations of advanced practice nurses – graduates from the 1980s or earlier and graduates from the 1990s. My years in Decatur were filled with opportunities for growth personally and professionally. Chicago was not far away so I enrolled in the University of Illinois, College of Nursing to complete a post-masters certificate in nurse-midwifery and a PhD in maternal-child nursing. The philosophy of the American College of Nurse-Midwives penetrated my soul becoming the focus of my dissertation and strongly influencing my personal philosophy of nursing: Caring for the whole person within family and community, respecting the person in all of their roles, responsibilities and diversity; birth as a natural, developmental event in a mother’s life course not a medical event; pregnancy and birth bring the birth of a mother as well as a child. My passion for newborns and their families was cultivated in numerous ways while I was in Decatur. Besides teaching maternal-child nursing twice a year and a course on childbearing and childrearing across cultures, the biggest influence was the BabyTALK program. Developed by several educators to promote literacy, BabyTALK faculty visited every new family giving them a board book and stressing the importance of reading to newborn and infants from the very start. I served on the BabyTALK Board of Directors for the majority of my time in Decatur. The BabyTALK program encouraged holding and interacting with infants in a very practical way, a much better “intervention” than what I as a NP would tell parents “you need to hold your infant as much as possible.” And now, in 2015, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has developed guidelines and a toolkit so every pediatrician can encourage reading to infants and toddlers in preparation for school. When I listened to the webinar on the new guidelines & tool kit the program they were promoting sounded very much like BabyTALK. As a result of my association with BabyTALK and with the help of several small faculty grants I became certified to perform Brazelton’s Neonatal Behavior Assessment which taught me a lot more about newborns’ neurological abilities. In the late 1990s Dr. T. B. Brazelton became aware of the BabyTALK program, starting a collaboration with Claudia Quigg, director of BabyTALK. Dr. Brazelton came to Decatur and I went to Boston for Touchpoints training, another apex in my career. The two components of Touchpoints: the relational model and the touchpoints resonated with my understanding of anticipatory guidance and my philosophy of building relationships with parents and patients. With BabyTALK teacher training and the Touchpoints training I participated as a faculty member when both of these trainings were offered in Decatur. After completing my PhD, my third degree from nationally topped ranked nursing schools... - Columbia University, NYC, BS Nursing - University of Washington Seattle, MN Primary Health Care/Family Nurse Practitioner - University of Illinois, Chicago, Post-masters certificate, Nurse-Midwifery PhD, Nurse-Midwifery/Maternal-Child Health Nursing... and adopting my daughters, it was time to move up again. Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, another of the top ranked nursing schools, became the destination. There I met Dr. Susan Ludington-Hoe and Dr. Gene Anderson, mentors extraordinaire!

 Gene and Susie were the nurses who went to Bogota Columbia in 1983 to learn about and do research on Kangaroo Mother Care. Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) or Kangaroo Care (KC) is the holding of a diaper clad baby skin-to-skin, chest-to-chest for prolonged periods, a heat and nurturing source much better than incubators which were in short supply in Bogota. I was aware of Kangaroo Care as nursing students wrote papers about it during their extended NICU clinical. But to be colleagues with two of the nurses who brought KMC back to the US. I was warmly welcomed into their research circle but while at that time KC was seen as an intervention for preterm and low birth weight neonates, I quickly realized that KC was also for full-term newborns. My mantra became and still is “Kangaroo Care for ALL Newborns!” Susie and Gene became dear friends as we worked on numerous research projects implementing KC. Gene’s last project before she retired was to study the impact of KC on successful breastfeeding latch for mother and full-term newborn dyads who were having breastfeeding difficulties at 24 hours after birth. A research assistant for the project, I assisted mothers with KC and breastfeeding. I was amazed the first time I watched a newborn infant crawl to the breast. And at the next feeding the infant just dropped his head toward the breast the next time he was ready to feed, almost jumping into the breastfeeding position. Emerging from Gene’s project was my first research project. As Susie and I sat outside mothers’ doors waiting for the next feeding it struck us how many persons were going in and out of the room. What were these events? Disturbances? Interruptions? They seemed to interfere with breastfeeding as mothers wanted privacy during feedings and would skip feedings if they expected company. To describe these events that I called interruptions I developed a descriptive study where I or a research assistant sat outside a mothers’ room noting who went into the room and the duration of the visit from 8 AM to 8 PM. Appalled at the results, I repeated the study at 2 additional hospitals. The results were similar: from 8 AM to 8 PM mothers experienced an average 53 “interruptions”. Occurrences of interruptions was erratic and gave mothers very little private time and what alone time they did have was generally of very short duration. How in the world was a mother able to breastfeeding frequently? Were all those interruptions causing increased stress for the mothers and if so did the increased stress hormones, especially cortisol, interfere with the release of oxytocin, the breastmilk let down hormone? These questions were and are the impetus for my program of scholarship and research. Dr. Ludington and I began what became a 10 year analysis of the literature on KC with full-term infants. The research on KC with full-term infants exploded during that time. It paralleled the increasing promotion of breastfeeding and eventually exclusive breastfeeding. The 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding became the guide for hospital breastfeeding policy and practice and the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative started to spread across the states. The American Academy of Pediatrics and many other physician groups endorsed skin-to-skin contact starting immediately after birth and continuing through the first breastfeeding for healthy full-term newborns. Suddenly, evidence from the scientific literature was being promoted and implemented. And I continued to scour the literature seeking answers to such questions as... How do frequent interruptions interfere with breastfeeding initiation and duration? • Are we as maternal-infant care providers creating the best environment for new families? • Is there a cost to separating mothers and infants? • What is maternal-infant separation? • What are the costs of our current practices which unconsciously promotes maternal-infant separation? • What is occurring with breastfeeding hormones during the early postpartum period? We tell mothers to breastfeed frequently during the first days after birth to establish milk supply but many women later report they had insufficient milk supply and ended breastfeeding within the first six weeks after birth. What was happening? Finding and synthesizing research evidence to answer these questions only lead to more wonderings... What is the progesterone receptor theory? • How are prolactin receptors up-regulated and does frequency of breastfeeding in the first 48-72 hours after birth make a difference in the number of prolactin receptors that are up-regulated and thus breast milk »supply? • What should the focus be for early postpartum recovery and care? • Does an open visitation policy create the best environment for new mothers and their babies? • Would we be providing better education and preparation for going home with a new baby if early postpartum care were based on Brazelton’s relational model? • Would implementation of the relational model and becoming supporters of new families rather than task completers improve nurses’ job satisfaction and retention? • And so many more! Paralleling my growing research interest and participations was immersion in new areas of teaching, specifically theories for nursing at the graduate level. What a reinforcement for the philosophy of nursing – holistic care for patients and their families so as to maintain or regain the best health possible in their current situation. A new ah-ha that nursing is the only healthcare profession proclaiming health and environment as two of their key concepts. And all those middle-range theories that give much better focus to nursing care and interventions. My passion for and commitment to nursing intensified. Nursing is so different from medicine and the attributes of nursing need to be championed and distinguished from medicine. How can we get nursing education back to embracing and promoting the nursing philosophy and model of care rather than espousing the medical/curative/fix it model of care?

 All of these experiences...

Immersing myself in diverse cultures across the United States • Becoming a labor and birth nurse • Seeking and completing graduate education in primary care/family nurse practitioner and later nurse-midwifery • Always considering breastfeeding the best for babies • Fascinated and eager to learn as much as possible about newborns’ development and capabilities • Embracing the philosophies of nursing and midwifery which affirm the normal rather than the dis-ease • Working with and being colleagues with the most renowned nurse researchers in Kangaroo Care in the world • Reimaging mother-newborn dyadic care • Synthesizing scientific literature from numerous disciplines related to psycho-neuro-endocrine development of the mother-newborn dyad • Championing Kangaroo Care and breastfeeding for full-term, healthy infants • And so much more... have lead me to my current position as associate professor in the Janice M. Riordan Distinguished Professorship in Maternal-Child Health at Wichita, Kansas. In the four years I have lived in Wichita my focus has broaden again. Kangaroo Care, putting newborn infants in their natural extra-utero habitat between moms’ breasts where they stay warm, learn the smells of their parents, receive appropriate stimuli, and feel comforted, secure and protected, promotes neuronal hardwiring to the social area of the brain. Additionally, the interactions between KC provider and infant, and affectionate grooming touch, done instinctively, further enhance forebrain and cortex development, which eventually translates into greater intelligence, strong friendships, emotional control, and greater independence. Promoting KC and frequent, prolonged holding and carrying could lead to significant societal changes. Currently, we see results from a multigenerational experiment of separating infants and their parents or primary caregiver. Separation, defined as no immediate contact/touch between caregiver and infant as occurs when infants are carried and sleep in portable car seats, when infants sleep in separate beds and perhaps rooms, when newborns are put in cribs for naps and so many other actions that have been culturally accepted but lead to separation and loss of human touch and socialization, leads to neural development of the primitive mid-brain, the fight or flight area of the brain causing high levels of cortisol and other stress hormones. Behaviors stemming from development of the mid-brain included anti-social behaviors such as bullying, over reaction to stressful events, and poor emotional control, addictive behaviors, suicide, depression and other mental health disorders. As mothers’ breastfeed for longer periods, preferably six months of exclusive breastfeeding, and provide lots of holding, carrying and interaction, changes will occur to the structure and complexity of the brain. Over several generations motivations will change leading to decrease infant and child abuse and neglect and infant mortality, greater functioning capacity especially for those at the lower end of the IQ spectrum, possibly allowing self-care and greater independence, altered epigenetic interpretations that are currently being caused by health disparities and chronic stress, and eventually, I hope, the ability for many to move out of poverty. Wichita is primed for change, especially as it relates to the health and well-being of our youngest citizens. Taking leadership roles I am seeking opportunities to discover pregnancy, birth, postpartum and breastfeeding needs and concerns in communities where infant mortality is the greatest. Using the tenants of Community Based Participatory Research we will start with focus groups to understand perceptions of current perinatal care and to identify desires and needs during the reproductive years. A member of the Maternal-Infant Health Coalition, community leaders gather monthly to coordinate perinatal care, avoiding duplication of services, enhancing prenatal education and, in general, improving outcomes and satisfaction throughout the reproductive years. Members of the coalition are recognizing more and more the impact of health and other disparities to the well-being of our community especially after two community summits during the past year, one on breastfeeding and the other on infant mortality. As discussed above I see a need for cultural changes leading to promotion of breastfeeding and much more positive and affirming child-caregiver interaction. In answering the questions below I hope to bring greater clarity to my hopes, desires and passions.

Honors and Awards

Along the way I have been recognized for my efforts... - Citizenship Award in the Pennsylvania Teenage America Pageant for involvement in race relation activities, Student United Nations, band, orchestra, scholars bowl team member and more during my high school years. - Induction into Sigma Theta Tau the nursing honor society in recognition of my leadership in the nursing community and scholarly achievements - Excellence in Nursing Award for Advanced Practice Nursing/ Education from the Decatur Area Task Force on Careers in Nursing for teaching at Millikin University and for participating in political activities supporting of recognition of advanced practice nurses and nursing. - Phi Kappa Phi, an academic honor society - Healthy Children Research Award from Healthy Children’s Center for Breastfeeding in recognition of my seminal research on interruptions to the breastfeeding dyad on postpartum day one. “Cutting edge research” identifying a barrier to breastfeeding initiation and continuation. - UCITE Fellow: CWRU University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education