By Sarah Morgan Johnson
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing Associate Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Family, Community and Health Systems Curry Bordelon, DNP, MBA, CRNP, NNP‐BC, CPNP‐AC, CNE, ANEF, FNAP (DNP 2016), has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the Nursing Academy by the National Academies of Practice.
The National Academies of Practice brings together multiple health professions to work collaboratively and advise on topics including national health policy and affordable, accessible health care.
Fellowship in the National Academies of Practice is an honor extended to those who have excelled in their profession and are dedicated to furthering interprofessional practice, scholarship and policy in support of interprofessional care. Fellows are nominated and elected by their peers, recognizing their achievements and leadership within their profession.
Over the past 28 years, Bordelon has worked as a nurse, a nurse practitioner and now a nurse educator. When he joined the School as faculty in 2017, he hoped to carry his interprofessional expertise in the clinical setting into his academic career. He feels this honor from the NAP marks his sustained and influential interprofessional practice and education focus.
“This is one of those milestones you look for in professional development. It shows that all the work I have done in the past has built itself into recognition as a Fellow. The NAP Fellowship is about the things you have done in the past with an eye to the future,” Bordelon said.
Bordelon has represented the School of Nursing as a UAB Interprofessional Leadership Fellow since 2018 and is thankful to have his interprofessional work supported by the School of Nursing and UAB at large.
“The School of Nursing consistently supports, pursues and encourages our work in the interprofessional space because there is significant evidence that exists about improved patient outcomes and satisfaction when interprofessional team members collaborate effectively. There’s a lot of multi-tiered benefits when it comes to interprofessional collaboration, and as the largest workforce in the health care industry, nursing has an opportunity to be the leader in that,” Bordelon said.
Bordelon is President-Elect of the American Association for Men in Nursing. He was the President of the Birmingham at-Large Chapter of AAMN from 2019 to 2022. In 2023, Bordelon was named to the UAB Excellence in Business Top 25 by the UAB National Alumni Society in recognition of outstanding efforts by UAB alumni in building sustainable business and professional organizations.
Bordelon will be inducted as a Distinguished Fellow at the 2025 NAP Annual Meeting and Forum.