Three Vanderbilt University School of Nursing faculty members won awards at the American College of Nurse Midwives annual awards celebration earlier this month. Assistant Professor Hannah Diaz, MSN’09, FACNM, was named Preceptor of the Year. Professor and Family Care Community Chair Julia Phillippi, PhD, MSN’99, FACNM, FAAN, received the ACNM Media Award, and Assistant Professor and Nurse-Midwifery Specialty Director Kendra Faucett, DNP, BS’00, FACNM, won the Excellence in Teaching Award.
Diaz practices full-scope midwifery at Vanderbilt Midwives & Primary Care at Melrose. She was nominated as Preceptor of the Year by the VUSN students she precepts there. In addition to practice and teaching, she serves on the American Registry For Diagnostic Medical Sonography’s Midwife Assessment Committee for Ultrasound and assists with a continuing education ultrasound course for midwives and advanced practice nurses. Diaz was inducted as an ACNM fellow in 2023.
Phillippi is the chair of VUSN’s Family Care Community and the immediate past director of the Nurse-Midwifery specialty. She was recognized for co-editing the 7th edition of Varney’s Midwifery, considered the definitive nurse-midwifery textbook. Over the course of her 20-year career, she has practiced in rural and urban birth centers and hospitals. Phillippi currently provides intrapartum care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her research focuses on access to perinatal care, interprofessional antenatal care, and birth-center care models. She was named an ACNM fellow in 2013.
Faucett was nominated for the Excellence in Teaching award by her VUSN students. She serves as Nurse-Midwifery Specialty Director, where she guides the education of nurse-midwifery students as well as of family nurse practitioner and nurse-midwifery students enrolled in VUSN’s dual NM/FNP specialty. She has earned numerous teaching, leadership and midwifery awards and has experience in political advocacy, public health, testing strategies and decreasing racial disparities. The American College of Nurse-Midwives inducted her as a fellow in 2022.