UMSON ALUMNI
Meet Our New Visionary Pioneers
Bertha L. Davis MS ’77
Kathleen Milholland Hunter PhD ’89, MS ’81, BSN ’76
Robin Newhouse
PhD ’00, MS ’99, BSN ’87
Rear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams MS ’99
Margaret Chamberlain Wilmoth MS ’79, BSN ’75
They are exceptional nurses who have changed the face of health care and have worked tirelessly to improve outcomes for patients and communities. They include leaders at the highest levels of education, the military, and clinical practice. They have created systems and models that have advanced patient and community care efforts worldwide. They are firsts and onlys. They are ground-breakers, innovators, and humanitarians. They are pioneers. And their spirit and determination reflect those of the School of Nursing during the past 130 years. On the occasion of this milestone anniversary for UMSON, we honor our five newest Visionary Pioneers, alumni who have made a significant impact on and contribution to the field of nursing based on their leadership, innovation, or entrepreneurship. They join the 25 inaugural members of this prestigious group, named during the School’s 125th anniversary celebration. Here, read more about them and hear directly from those who nominated them.
Compiled by Giordana Segneri
36 • NURSING FOR/UM • FALL 2019
BERTHA L. DAVIS, PhD, MS ’77, RN, ANEF, FAAN, demonstrated leadership as a champion of underserved populations throughout her distinguished nursing career; she is a retired dean and professor emerita of nursing at Hampton University in Virginia and a retired lieutenant colonel of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. As the founding director of the first PhD in nursing program at a historically black university, her advocacy and research traversed national and international arenas where health disparities burdened traditionally underrepresented ethnic and racial groups and homeless populations. Davis led nurse leaders during two missions in Africa and subsequently created a curricular model that embraces humanitarian and cultural issues. She was director for numerous federally funded projects to assist diverse student, civilian, and military populations.
“Dr. Davis is an extraordinary leader whose accomplishments reach across her distinguished nursing career and who links her military accomplishments and entrepreneurship experiences with outstanding professional service in education and health to address health disparities and to fill critical manpower shortage areas in the nation’s workplace.” — PHYLLIS SHARPS,
PHD ’88, BSN ’70, RN, FAAN
“Please honor Dr. Kathleen Hunter for her lifelong commitment as a pioneer in enhancing and innovating the specialty of nursing informatics, which will ultimately improve the quality of health care for all. She was a visionary and influential in contributing to the advancement of nursing practice. To hear of her passing was devastating to all — she will be sorely missed.” — CAROLYN SIPES, PHD, CNS,
APRN, RN-BC, PMP, NEA-BC, FAAN
With a systems specialist, telehealth, telenursing, and nursing informatics background, KATHLEEN MILHOLLAND HUNTER, PhD ’89, MS ’81, BSN ’76, FAAN, was instrumental in the development of the American Nursing Association publication Nursing Informatics: Scope and Standards of Practice and was one of the original designers of the TIGER-based Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competencies© (TANIC), an online assessment tool now used globally. In the informatics field, she advocated for adopting inclusionary language that reflected nursing’s role, avoiding naming “physicians” separately and instead using “health care providers.” She was a professor at Chamberlain University College of Nursing and was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing just prior to her death in 2018.