National Forum Subscriber Recognition Awards

The National Forum Subscriber recognition awards celebrate the great amount of work by nursing workforce centers and our nursing workforce partners across the United States.

2025 National Forum Subscriber Recognition Awardees

Excellence in Innovation by a Center Award: New Jersey Collaborating Center for Nursing  

This award recognizes a center that has:

      • Developed innovative research or programs aligned with state needs.
  • Created unique or creative educational initiatives.
  • Integrated technology or novel teaching approaches.
  • Effectively responded to emerging healthcare trends.

This year’s nominee stood out for several achievements:

  • Launched an RN acute care residency program across 22 hospitals, achieving an impressive 89–90% one-year retention rate. Notably, 14 of these hospitals secured Department of Labor funding. This model was expanded this year to support school nurses, addressing critical staffing gaps.
  • Introduced the first statewide Advanced Practice Transition into Practice Program in 2024, partnering with three healthcare organizations to cover multiple specialty areas.
  • Implemented a long-term care residency program for both LPNs and RNs, rolled out in six long-term care facilities, directly tackling persistent recruitment and retention challenges.

Center of the Year Award: Hawaii State Center for Nursing 

This award goes to a center that has:

  • Successfully implemented strategies to address local nursing shortages or workforce issues.
  • Collaborated effectively with healthcare organizations, educational institutions, or community partners.
  • Demonstrated concrete efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  • Launched initiatives improving healthcare delivery or patient outcomes through workforce enhancement.
  • Shown commitment to continuous improvement and adaptation as needs evolve.

This year’s nominee demonstrated:

  • Active reduction of career progress inequity in rural areas, enabling rural hospitals to offer specialty nurse training for the first time. Although rural nurses make up only 25% of the state’s workforce, they accounted for 43% of program enrollment.
  • Workforce capacity improvements through cross-training in rural hospitals.
  • Substantial gains in specialty nurse capacity, adding 2,674 specialty nurses over two years, improving critical vacancy rates.
  • Employer perception strategies, enhancing how nurses view their organizations’ support for professional development and well-being.

Emerging Center Award: Kansas Nursing Workforce Center 

This award honors a center that has:

  • Made rapid, meaningful progress in building essential infrastructure.
  • Demonstrated strong, effective leadership.
  • Developed a strategic plan aligned with state needs.
  • Built key partnerships to secure long-term success.

This year’s nominee has accomplished:

  • Established a mission grounded in statewide listening sessions: ensuring access to quality nursing care and supporting nurses as individuals and team members.
  • Built core infrastructure in its first year: onboarding leadership, forging key collaborations, publishing its first statewide nursing report, and forming an Advisory Board.
  • Led statewide webinars to share report findings.
  • Secured a $500,000, two-year grant to develop a secure nursing database.
  • Hosted a summit on preceptorships.
  • Developed a robust strategic plan based on measurable achievements and stakeholder feedback.
  • Formed strong partnerships with the statewide Area Health Education Center and HOSA, launching research and projects focused on middle and high school students.

2024 National Forum Subscriber Recognition Awardees

Exceptional Contribution: Associate Subscriber Award 

Deborah C. Stamps EdD, MBA, MS, RN, GNP, NE-BC, CDE®, FAAN

Founder and CEO, Deborah Stamps Consulting, LLC

State: New York 

The nominee is one of our most active associate subscribers. She was one of the first to join and has actively participated on sharing sessions, committees and other collaborative activities.  She has been an active member on several of our committees including JEDI and Conference Committees including taking on leadership roles.  She has collaborated with multiple states on JEDI related work, has served as a co-chair or our JEDI committee and is instrumental in developing tools and other resources for use by members.  She has always been willing to step forward and volunteer her time and expertise on the committees that she has served on and has been a valuable addition to our membership.

Exceptional Contribution: State Representative Subscriber Award 

Carrie Oliveira, Ph.D.

Associate Specialist for Workforce Research

Hawaii Center for Nursing 

State: Hawaii 

Dr. Oliveira has been a member of the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers since 2017 and has actively participated in the Research Committee since that time first serving as secretary until 2022, then as co-chair starting in 2022, and is currently chair. In the nominee’s capacity as a skilled communicator, convener, and a passionate mentor, the nominee has achieved two notable accomplishments within the Forum.    First, the nominee worked in an interstate collaborative ad-hoc committee to design, build, test, and then deploy the state data dashboard.   Second, in response to a colleague’s request for support in optimizing her outputs as a state nursing researcher, the nominee worked to support the undertaking of the colleague, and then further, worked with the colleague to present the resource to the members of the national forum. Within the Forum, she works to mentor other member representatives in strategies to conduct research, analyze data, and develop research-based recommendations to enhance the nursing workforce relative to individual states and state needs.

Lifetime Contribution Award 

Kimberly J. Harper, MS, RN, FAAN

CEO, Indiana Center for Nursing 

State: Indiana

Since 2011, Kim  has been an instrumental figure within the National Forum, assuming various leadership roles.  From 2012-2013, they served as a Board Member at Large, followed by their tenure as Vice President-elect and then as President. Throughout these pivotal roles, the nominee spearheaded numerous strategic initiatives crucial to the organization’s robust present stature.  Noteworthy accomplishments include the orchestration of the transition to a nationally recognized organization through a pivotal name change and conceptualizing the current logo of the National Forum.  The leaders’ contributions extend to their proactive involvement in the National Forum conference planning committees over a span of nine years.  Beyond her administrative duties, Kim displayed a commitment to mentorship by engaging with new state workforce centers, offering invaluable guidance on organizational and governance frameworks.  Her enduring impact has indelibly shaped the governance and structural fabric of the National Forum, while also serving as a consummate ambassador for the organization across many professional platforms throughout the years.

Lifetime Contribution Award 

Marcia B. Proto, M.Ed, CAS

Executive Director, The CT Center for Nursing Workforce 

State: Connecticut 

After joining the National Forum in 2013, Marcia Proto’s organization stepped up to host the annual conference for the FORUM in Connecticut; and since then has actively participated on almost all of the volunteer leadership committees.  On the Governance Committee, one of her roles was to bring forth a best-practice Board Evaluation Assessment so that the FORUM Board Leadership could assess their competencies, capacity, and ability to impact the national organization as well as engagement with state subscribers.  As a member of annual conference committee for over 5 years, Marcia has shared her state and national network to collaborate with members of the FORUM and national entities to promote the conference, secure sponsors, exhibitors, and speakers to benefit the attendees of the annual conference as well as the fiscal bottom-line for the FORUM.  She also freely shared any innovative projects, programs, services with all state subscribers offering special pricing to their networks. Moreover, Marcia has been hired by other state subscribers to utilize her expertise in program development and board leadership preparation to promote excellence within their respective states. Marcia has had a substantial impact on the National Forum.