Winners

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ANA Innovation Awards Winners

Learn about the American Nurses Association's Innovation Awards Individual & Nurse-Led Team winners, and hear their nursing innovation stories.

2024 ANA Innovation Award Winners

Winner of the Individual Nurse Award

Kwamane Liddell, JD, RN, BSN
Founder and CEO
ThriveLink

Kwamane Liddell

Kwamane Liddell is the creative mind behind the advanced technology at ThriveLink, which uses a voice activated program enrollment platform that bridges the gap between individuals and essential social programs that are underutilized.

This innovation helps address the social determinants of health impacting many marginalized communities that inevitably influence health outcomes. The ThriveLink platform connects people to resources such as utility assistance, rental and mortgage assistance, food benefits, health insurance, health care programs and more.

ThriveLink has the ability to create access for the 130 million people who currently struggle to complete the administrative burden and paperwork necessary to successfully enroll in these programs. The ThriveLink technology provides health consumers with a user-friendly experience by eliminating the middleman, the tedious requirement to fill out numerous forms, and language and cultural barriers faced by many families in need. The entire process to apply for an assistance program can be completed by anyone in just four steps and is available 24/7, on a mobile phone or website.

Winner of the Nurse-Led Team Award

Wallena (Lena) Gould, EdD, CRNA, FAANA, FAAN
Founder and CEO
Diversity in Nurse Anesthesia Mentorship Program

Wallena (Lena) Gould

Team Members

Mark Giles, DNP, CRNA
Tedrick Vernon, DNP, CRNA
Victor Pareja, DNP, CRNA
Levia Sutton, CRNA, MSN
Rylee Apodaca, DNP, CRNA
Daniel Payne, CRNA, MSN
Jiale Gary Hu, PhD, RN, FAAN
Nathaly Palacios, DNP, CRNA

Mark Giles Tedrick Vernon Victor Pareja Levia Sutton Rylee Apodaca Daniel Payne Jiale Gary Hu Nathaly Palacios

The Diversity in Nurse Anesthesia Mentorship Program, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is dedicated to promoting and advancing diversity within graduate nurse anesthesia programs. This is primarily accomplished through the Immersion Model for Diversifying Nurse Anesthesia Programs (The Immersion Model), an innovative, evidence-based program focused on the diversification of the nursing workforce. It was created specifically for nurses of color who have been historically underrepresented as certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs); thereby, aiming to help reduce health disparities, structural inequities, and institutional biases. The Immersion Model prepares nurses of color to be competitive applicants for graduate anesthesia programs and successful students while equipping them to provide better health outcomes for the diverse population.

What’s unique about the Immersion Model is that it’s the only program that actively engages with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions Schools of Nursing. With the award funds, The Immersion Model’s goal is to expand its professional events for CRNAs across the country. It also seeks to replicate this successful program for Advance Practice Nurses (APRNs).

2024 Individual Honorable Mention

Brenda Lessen Knoll, PhD, RN
Founder
PIOMI

2024 Team Honorable Mention

Diane Miller, CRNA
CEO
PeDIA, LLC

2023 Winners:

Winner of the Nurse-Led Team Award - Roxanne McMurray, DNP, APRN, CRNA, Co-Founder and VP of Clinical Management, Inventor of the Distal Pharyngeal Airway - The McMurray Enhanced Airway (MEA)

McMurray Medical Team:

Peter L. Anderson, Co-founder; Financial Director
Ryan Artale, Partner, Product Development and Quality
Steve Fischer, Co-founder and President
Brian McMurray, Co-founder; Sales, Marketing, and Distribution Director
Jana Stender, Marketing and Communications Consultant

Winner of the Individual Nurse Award - Robin Austin, PhD, DNP, DC, RN-BC, FAMIA, FNAP

2023 Team Honorable Mention
Denise Hopkins-Chadwick, PhD, RN
Senior Vice President of Research
Revitalist, LLC
Nurses Set the Standard in Psychedelic Use for Mental Wellness

2023 Innovation Honorable Mention
Sherri Wilson, DNP, MPA, RN
Director, Partnership Development
Stride, Inc.
School to Career Linkages: Strengthening the Nursing Pipeline

2022 Winners:

Winner of the Individual Nurse Award - KaSheta Johnson Jackson, DNP, RN, Vice President, Health Equity and Social Impact at Vidant Health

Winners of the Nurse-Led Team

Michael Pickett, MSN, APRN, CPNP, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner at Texas Children's Hospital
Marilyn Hockenberry, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Global HOPE Nursing at Baylor College of Medicine
Jaime Choate, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, Nursing Professional Development Specialist at Texas Children's Hospital
Jeannie Eggers, MSN, RN, CPN, CCRN, Simulation Education Specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital
Tadala Mulemba, BscNM, RN – Nursing and Midwifery Officer, Ministry of Health, Malawi