The National Academies of Practice (NAP) elected Stephanie Wynn, Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing professor and associate dean for scholarly activity, nurse practitioner residency director, and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner track coordinator, as a Distinguished Nursing Fellow. The class of 2022 Fellows were welcomed into the National Academies of Practice during the awards and induction ceremony in San Diego, California on March 5, 2022.
Founded in 1981, NAP is an interprofessional, nonprofit organization, with membership representing a range of health care professions willing to serve as distinguished advisors to health care policy makers in Congress and elsewhere. The mission of NAP is to serve as distinguished professionals advancing interprofessional health care by fostering collaboration and advocating policies in the best interest of individuals and communities.
Fellowship in the National Academies of Practice is an honor extended to those who have excelled in their profession and are dedicated to furthering interprofessional practice, scholarship and policy in support of interprofessional care. The central purpose of NAP is to advise public policy makers on health care issues using NAP's unique perspective - that of expert practitioners and scholars joined in interprofessional dialogue and advocacy.
Wynn is a nurse educator with extensive professional leadership and scholarly work. She currently serves Samford University’s Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing as the associate dean for scholarly activity. In addition, she is the director of the school’s inaugural nurse practitioner residency program which she helped establish. She also serves as the coordinator of the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner track which offers programs at the masters, doctoral and certificate level. Recently, she developed several pathways to assist Veterans students in obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
She has a wide-range of clinical experience in underserved populations, which includes the provision of education, counseling and treatment to minority and disadvantaged patients in various settings. Currently, she is the only mental health primary care provider for a community-based clinic, which offers services for uninsured patients in seven underserved and rural counties in Alabama. She is committed to developing professional nurses and strengthening relationships with academic, preceptors and clinical partners throughout the community.
Past Samford faculty members and graduates who have received this award include, Nena Sanders, former dean of Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing and founding vice provost of the College of Health Sciences, Ellen Buckner, professor in Samford University’s Ida Moffett School of Nursing, and Michael Hogue, a 1996 alumnus of Samford University’s McWhorter School of Pharmacy, who were inducted as NAP Distinguished Fellows in 2020, 2019 and 2012 respectively.
