Teresa Shellenbarger '95 and Brenda Elliott '12, graduates of the nursing science doctoral program in the Jack and Nancy Dwyer School of Nursing, have been inducted into the American Academy of Nursing's prestigious fellowship program. 

The American Academy of Nursing is an honorific society and a policy organization comprised of more than 3,000 fellows who represent nursing’s most accomplished leaders in policy, research, administration, practice, and academia. Fellows are selected annually through a highly competitive nomination and review process. This distinguished honor, celebrates nurses for their extraordinary contributions to improve health locally and globally. Those inducted into the program earn the Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, or FAAN, credential, the most prestigious recognition in nursing.

Shellenbarger and Elliott's inductions bring the total number of Widener nursing members with FAAN credentials to 12—nine alumni and two faculty.

Shellenbarger is the executive director for the National League for Nursing Commission for Nursing Education Accreditation where she leads nursing education program accreditation initiatives. She is a distinguished university professor emeritus and was founding director of the PhD in nursing program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her significant, substantial, and longstanding national and international contributions focus on leading quality workforce development initiatives and developing and supporting clinical nursing education competency development.

Elliott is an associate professor and director of the graduate program in nursing at Messiah University. Elliott’s primary research addresses the professional development needs of nurses and nurse educators to teach nurses and nursing students respectively about the healthcare needs of members of the military, veterans, and their families. 

Share link: https://www.widener.edu/news/noteworthy/two-nursing-alumni-named-american-academy-nursing-fellows