Vanderbilt University School of Nursing doctoral students recently honored professors Mary Dietrich and Karen Hande with the school’s student-voted Dean Colleen Conway-Welch faculty awards.
Dietrich, Ph.D., professor of Statistics/Measurement, was named the 2017 Ph.D. faculty award recipient. She teaches research design and statistics and supports Ph.D. students with their dissertation research. Student nominations noted that in addition to being an excellent teacher, she goes out of her way to help students understand and always makes time for their needs. “She has really gone beyond what is necessary to help me,” one nominator wrote. “I would 100 percent not be where I am without Dr. Dietrich.” In addition to teaching, Dietrich is a co-investigator and consultant on a wide array of funded research studies across Vanderbilt.
Doctor of Nursing Practice students selected Hande, DNP, ANP-BC, CNE, associate professor of Nursing, as the 2017 recipient of the DNP program faculty award. She teaches on the application of evidence-based practice and the execution of students’ DNP projects, which demonstrate the synthesis of students’ doctoral education scholarship. Hande coordinates the 
program’s integrative application course series, a sequence of courses designed to advance the students into practice scholars. Students praised her for her dedication to helping students reach their goals. “I will try to model my teaching methods after her since I was so inspired by her patience and willingness to help,” a student wrote.
The annual awards recognize faculty in the DNP and Ph.D. programs who make significant contributions to student learning in their courses and/or who encourage students as advisers or mentors, particularly by exhibiting knowledge of content area, modeling of professional behaviors in the development of their scholarly activity and encouragement of scholarship. The awards were presented by VUSN Dean Linda Norman, DSN, FAAN, the Valere Potter Menefee Professor of Nursing, during the programs’ fall 2017 intensive (concentrated on-campus blocks of courses) sessions.
Top photo: Associate Professor Karen Hande accepts the 2017 Dean Colleen Conway-Welch award for DNP faculty from VUSN Dean Linda Norman.
Inset photos, from top: Mary Dietrich, Karen Hande
Image, top: Theresa Montgomery. Inset images: Keith Wood