Past Award Recipients

Dr. Robyn Begley has served the nursing profession at the highest levels, including service as the chief nursing officer for the American Hospital Association and president of the AONL Foundation while serving as AONL’s CEO. She has been a true partner with AACN and has worked with the organization tirelessly to foster excellence through collaboration.

Throughout Dr. Begley’s career, she recognized the importance of academic and practice leaders working together to meet nursing education and workforce needs. Under her leadership, AACN and AONL developed the Shared Vision for Integrating Nursing Education and Practice that serves as an enduring guide to advancing excellence in nursing and meeting the challenges of better health, health care, and higher education. The two organizations established joint meetings and days of dialogue for practice and academic leaders to discuss strategies and opportunities for collaboration to address priorities focused on the workforce. The AACN-AONL Advisory Committee was launched with the charge to include creating a comprehensive playbook to guide the development of effective and enduring academic-practice partnerships. Further, through our partnership, Dr. Begley has been a strong advocate for nursing’s move to competency-based education and a strong supporter of the framework set forth in the 2021 Essentials.

Darlene Curley is the former CEO of Jonas Philanthropies and Executive Director of the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare, charged with improving healthcare access, quality, and affordability. Dr. Curley is a distinguished figure and thought leader in the healthcare policy and finance arena who has transformed the lives of vulnerable populations and broader communities through direct service delivery, infrastructure development, legislative action, and innovative partnerships. Her leadership and advocacy for directing the Jonas Foundation’s resources toward supporting doctoral nursing education was visionary and transformational, growing the program from 6 doctoral scholars in greater New York to 1,200 Jonas Scholars in all 50 states. Academic nursing continues to benefit from her work to increase the number of doctorally prepared faculty, researchers, and clinicians.

In addition, Dr. Curley consulted with AACN on the creation of AACN’s Foundation for Academic Nursing and served as the inaugural Chair of the Foundation Advisory Committee. She initiated and launched the COVID-19 Student Support Fund in April 2020, which provided scholarships to students in all 50 states meeting a critical need during a difficult time in nursing and healthcare. This initiative, and her key financial support, in turn spurred funding from additional philanthropists, highlighting Darlene’s influence in attracting financial support for nursing students during a period of crisis. A longtime partner and collaborator with AACN and our member schools, Darlene was awarded an AACN Honorary Associate Membership Award in 2018.