Inside Syllabus: November–December 2026 Issue

Inside this Syllabus Edition: 

• Award Winners Announced at 2026 ANLC
• Updates on Transform 2026 Conference Agenda
• Register for 2027 Doctoral Conference and Student Policy Summit
• Summary and Highlights from the 2026 Thought Leaders Assembly
• Apply for a Leadership Program through AACN LEADS
• ...and more!

Read the Latest Issue

Q&A with Dr. Edwidge Thomas

NEF was founded more than a century ago to invest in the nursing profession. Why do you believe scholarship support remains so important for graduate nursing students today?

Scholarship support is more important than ever. NEF scholarships are awarded for leadership potential. NEF Scholars demonstrate how they are leaders in their clinical and academic positions, providing service to nursing associations, and in their communities. We hear time and time again from our scholars that NEF scholarships allow them to focus on these priorities and reduce their financial stress.

You recently assumed the role of Board President. What drew you to NEF, and what excites you most about leading the organization at this point in its history?

My connection to Nurses Educational Funds is, frankly, autobiographical before it is institutional. I began my career as an ICU nurse and later practiced as an advanced practice nurse, caring for medically and socially complex patients. Every subsequent chapter of my career – a master’s and Doctor of Nursing Practice at Columbia University, and a master’s in clinical epidemiology and health services research at Cornell University – was made possible because generous donors believed it was worth investing in graduate nursing education. I know the costs, in money and time, to pursue advanced education while working and raising a family.  What drew me to NEF specifically, when I joined the Board in 2017, was the clarity and discipline of its mission. NEF is an organization devoted exclusively to raising and stewarding funds for graduate nursing education at the master’s and doctoral levels. It does not dilute its purpose. Having served on many committees, I have seen that discipline from the inside: the rigor with which we evaluate scholars, the fiduciary seriousness with which we manage the endowment, and the intentionality with which we have worked to ensure our nursing scholar cohort reflects the full diversity of patients  What excites me about this particular moment is that the stakes have rarely been higher. We are confronting a faculty shortage that functions as a bottleneck on the entire profession. Schools of nursing turn away qualified applicants not for lack of demand but for lack of doctorally-prepared faculty. We need nurse scientists to generate evidence and nurse leaders fluent in finance, data, policy, and technology to sit in the rooms where healthcare decisions are being made. I have spent the last several years in those rooms, and nursing’s presence continues to be too rare. Graduate education opens that door.  My ambition for NEF is straightforward: to grow the scale of our reach, attract more talented scholars, larger awards, and a broader and more diverse donor base, while deepening our partnerships with schools of nursing, corporate sponsors, philanthropists, and organizations, like AACN, that share our commitment

Throughout your career, you’ve worked in healthcare innovation, workforce development, and advanced practice nursing. How have those experiences shaped your perspective on preparing the next generation of nurse leaders?

Two experiences have shaped my thinking. In 1995, I was a founding member of the first independent nurse practitioner primary care practice in the U.S., serving a commercially insured population in the most saturated healthcare market in the country. We were not merely delivering care. We were making an argument about what advanced practice nurses are capable of, and we made it publicly, on 60 Minutes and in other national print media. What I learned is that advancing the profession requires nurses who are willing to be uncomfortable, negotiate contracts, speak to skeptical audiences, and occupy seats they were not invited to occupy. That is a learned competency, not a personality trait, and graduate education is where it is taught and cultivated.  Second, I had the privilege of leading a system-level transformation for Medicaid beneficiaries at scale by collaborating with hundreds of partner healthcare organizations with the responsibility for clinical strategy, budgetary planning, funds-flow methodology, state audits, and board governance, ultimately earning hundreds of millions of award dollars in the New York State Medicaid incentive program. That experience convinced me that clinical excellence, while nonnegotiable, is insufficient. The next generation of nurse leaders must be literate in health economics, data analytics, contracting, and policy. When nurses cannot speak the language of finance and evidence, decisions about nursing get made without nurses. These experiences converge on the conviction I bring to NEF. We must fund leadership preparation as deliberately as we fund clinical preparation. Master’s education provides the foundation for leadership principles, DNP prepares nurses for hospitals and health system leadership, PhD nurses generate evidence and more as nurse scientists, EdD nurses, and others, educate our future nurse leaders.

Over the years, NEF has awarded more than 1,500 scholarships to nurses pursuing graduate education. How does NEF stay connected to this community of expert nurses?

NEF Scholar and Board Member Nancy Roecklein created our Circle of Scholars, which connects all of our scholarship recipients. We have an online community for the scholars, and we share news with our network about their achievements, such as the four scholars who became Academy Fellows and four who became NLN Fellows this year. In addition to Nancy, past scholars Annmarie Munana, Annie Rohan, and Megan Pate are board members, and others assist in our scholarship application review process.

Earlier this year, Virginia “Ginger” Berman joined NEF as executive director. What strengths and new opportunities does she bring to the organization, and how is her leadership helping advance NEF’s mission?

Hiring an executive director is the single most consequential decision a board makes, and we approached it accordingly. What we sought was not simply an administrator but a builder, someone capable of translating a clear and disciplined mission into sustained organizational growth. We found that in Ginger Berman, and the early returns have more than justified the board’s confidence. Ginger brings more than 20 years of work with nonprofit leaders in marketing, fundraising, and large-scale events, combining the operational depth of her roles with the comparative, diagnostic perspective of a consultant – a discernment that allows an organization of NEF’s size to pursue the practices that genuinely move the needle. Her formal preparation spans the full architecture of nonprofit leadership, from institutional fundraising and financial analysis to governance, ethics, donor management, and resource development, with a robust track record.  Under her leadership, NEF is moving from episodic fundraising toward a disciplined multi-year strategy, from transactional giving toward genuine stewardship, and from a largely individual donor base toward one that includes corporate and institutional partners while leveraging technology in all her processes. In addition, Ginger has leveraged her marketing expertise to spread the NEF message about the lasting value of donating for the advancement of graduate nursing education. She has broadened NEF’s reach by storytelling and partnering effectively with the Board and scholars, respecting the line between governance and management and giving us the analysis and data we need to govern well. I am grateful for her partnership, and I can confidently speak for the board and say we are genuinely optimistic about what we will accomplish together.

Looking ahead, what are some of NEF’s priorities for expanding its reach and impact among nursing students, faculty, and emerging nurse leaders?

NEF currently offers 44 different scholarships, all through a single application, which is open from October to February 1. We have two top priorities right now: getting the word out to nursing schools and associations so that more graduate nursing students learn about us and submit an application; and raising the funds to provide larger scholarship awards, because federal loan availability is uncertain and tuition costs continue to rise. We will continue to elevate and support the emerging nurse leaders selected for NEF scholarships.

If you could leave AACN members with one message about supporting the future of nursing through scholarships and philanthropy, what would it be?

Scholarship support is not charity. It is capital investment in the healthcare infrastructure of this country, and it carries one of the highest returns available in philanthropy. My message to AACN members, deans, faculty, and academic leaders who shape this profession’s future every day is three-fold:

1. Give, at whatever level is meaningful for you, and give consistently. Endowed support is what allows an organization like NEF to make multiyear commitments to scholars.

2. Identify and nominate your strongest students and write the kind of recommendation letter that someone once wrote for you.

3. Normalize the conversation about money in our profession; teach students that asking for support, whether a scholarship, grant, or a seat at a negotiating table, is not an imposition but a professional competency.

We are collectively the stewards of a profession that holds the public’s trust year after year. The most consequential thing we can do with that trust is to ensure that the brilliance already present in our students is never lost because they lack the funding for advanced education. That is the work of Nurses Educational Funds, and I am honored to lead it.