Crystal Bailey, a graduate of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, and five Emory University seniors were recently named the university's 2007 Humanitarian Award winners. The honor recognizes undergraduate and graduate students who embody a spirit of volunteerism and sense of community.

Bailey has had a longtime commitment to international humanitarian service. She has worked in and lived with underserved populations in Uganda, Kosovo, Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Bailey is a graduate student pursuing a dual degree in midwifery and public health as a Fuld Fellow at Emory. She has served on the board of the Emory International Student Nurses Association for several years.

Bailey has assisted with relief efforts in New Orleans; volunteered at Mercy Care, a clinic serving the homeless population in Atlanta; and started a soap-making microenterprise with African refugee women.

On the weekends, Bailey works as a nurse at Emory Crawford Long Hospital.

The other honorees are Lindsey Baker, Jamie Lawler, Mary C. Parker, Haley Rosengarten and Elizabeth Sholtys. The students, who were nominated for the awards by peers and faculty members, received plaques and gift certificates to the Emory bookstore at a recent ceremony on campus.

COUNCIL APPOINTMENT: Gael Gilbert, managing director of professional nursing services at Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale, was recently appointed to the advisory council of the Office of Women's Health by Gov. Sonny Perdue. The mission of the Office of Women's Health is to promote and lead efforts to improve the health status and quality of life of women through education, research, policy development and the coordination of women's health programming.

Gilbert, RN, BSN, MPH, has worked at Southern Regional for five years and has more than 30 years of clinical and managerial experience in women's health. Under Gilbert's direction, Southern Regional's neonatal intensive care unit was selected by Advance for Nurses magazine as the 2006 Southeast Region Nursing Team of the Year.

NURSING SCHOLARSHIP: Nicole Clemens, a nurse in the mother/baby unit at Gwinnett Women's Pavilion in Lawrenceville, has been awarded the $2,500 Frances Greer Scholarship for the 2006-07 academic year.

The Greer Scholarship is intended for the career growth of a licensed practical nurse who is returning to a registered nurse program. The scholarship provides financial assistance for school-related costs and hands-on clinical training to students in registered nursing programs.

Clemens, LPN, is enrolled in the BSN program at Georgia Baptist College of Nursing at Mercer University. She has worked as a licensed practical nurse at Gwinnett Women's Pavilion since 2000.

ALUMNA HONORED: Shariffa Al-Jabri, a graduate of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and director of nursing affairs for the Oman Ministry of Health, is this year's recipient of Emory University's Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award.

Al-Jabri was chosen for her work in nursing and midwifery and for her service to her country by helping to improve health standards and practices. A Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at Emory in 1995 and 1996, Al-Jabri has served as the president of the Oman Nursing and Midwifery Council since 2001.

The award recognizes Emory's international alumni who have gone on to achieve prominence in their careers around the world.

STEERING COMMITTEE POST: Sandra McVicker, senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer of MCG Health Inc., has been named to a three-year term on the Chief Nursing Officers Council's steering committee of the University HealthSystem Consortium.

The steering committee will set the direction of the CNO Council, which serves as an advisory group in determining initiatives that should be undertaken by the University HealthSystem Consortium, an alliance of 97 academic medical centers.

McVicker, RN, MSN, joined MCG Health Inc. in 1997.

FACULTY FELLOWSHIPS: Registered nurses who are enrolled in graduate-level, degree-granting colleges or universities in Georgia and are preparing to become nurse educators may be eligible to apply for Promise of Nursing Regional Faculty Fellowships. Up to $7,500 annually may be used for tuition, academic fees and books. The application deadline is March 10.

For more information, visit www.nsna.org.

NURSING SCHOOL HONOR: Emory University's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing has been ranked second in the nation among nursing schools in scholarly productivity, according to an index released in January.

The 2005 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, produced by Academic Analytics and reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, surveys the productivity of faculty among 7,200 doctoral programs, including nursing programs, across the country. Faculty productivity is measured in publication activity, federal-grant funding, and honors and awards.

PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT PROGRAM: Mercer University's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences is developing a physician assistant program in conjunction with its educational partnership with Piedmont Healthcare of Atlanta. The graduate program's inaugural class is set to begin study in January 2008.

The 28-month program will be based at Mercer's Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta and will eventually enroll up to 50 graduate candidates per year. The program is designed with 12 months of initial classroom instruction, followed by 16 months of professional didactics and clinical rotations.

The program, which will be the fourth of its kind in Georgia and the second in the Atlanta area, has received provisional accreditation by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant Inc.

There will be a series of free information sessions for prospective students on Mercer's Atlanta campus. The sessions will be March 8 (10 a.m. to noon), March 16 (4 to 6 p.m.) and March 17 (10 a.m. to noon). For information, go to www.mercer.edu/pharmacy.

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