By Hunter Carter
Six University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing faculty and alumni have been recognized by This is Alabama, Alabama Media Group and the Alabama State Nurses Association as the Top Nurses in the state.
Event organizers requested nominations from across the state. Alabamians were encouraged to nominate health care heroes who had made a positive impact on their lives, and awardees were selected by a ASNA panel from a pool of more than 400 nominees. While six faculty and alumni were finalists in this year’s awards, two were named to the Top 10.
UAB Medicine Assistant Director of Advanced Practice Providers and Adjunct Instructor Eileen Meyer, DNP, CRNP, ACNP-BC (MSN 1997, DNP 2017), and former president of the Birmingham Black Nurses Association Deborah Thedford-Zimmerman, RN, MSN, WOCN (BSN 1986), received Top 10 Nurses in Alabama honors. President and CEO of the National Black Nurses Association and Associate Professor Martha A. Dawson, DNP, MSN, RN, FACHE (BSN 1976, MSN 1984), Princeton Baptist Medical Center Emergency Department Nurse Manager Kyla Higgins, BSN, RN, CEN (BSN 2000), UAB Hospital Tele-ICU Nurse Manager Paul D. Malito, MHA, BSN, RN (BSN 2012), and UAB Medicine Senior Director of Gastroenterology Service Line and Ambulatory Services Kelley Williams, MSN, RN, NE-BC (MSN 2015), were named finalists for the Top Nurses in Alabama.
“Having not one, but two distinguished and highly accomplished alumni recognized as some of the top nurses in Alabama is truly a remarkable feat for the School of Nursing,” said Dean and Fay B. Ireland Endowed Chair in Nursing Doreen C. Harper, PhD, RN, FAAN. “Nothing is more meaningful than having these alumni and faculty impact our community so that our students have someone to look up to and hopefully follow in their footsteps.”
