University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Nursing Associate Professor Loretta Taylor Lee, PhD, CRNP, FNP-BC, has received the 2020 Nurse Educator of the Year Award from the National Black Nurses Association Inc. This national award recognizes a professional nurse practice educator or nurse faculty who share their educational expertise through classroom instructions, professional presentations, publications or other means.
Lee is a member of the Birmingham Black Nurses Association and was nominated by BBNA President Deborah Thedford, RN, MSN, WOCN, and UAB School of Nursing colleague Angela Lowery DNP, FNP-BC. Thedford (BSN 1984) and Lowery (DNP 2009) are both UAB alumna.
Lee received the award based on her long history of teaching distance accessible courses across graduate and doctoral programs that encourage life-long learning, intra- and interpersonal education, and for developing that inquisitive nature in students to support their professional development as advanced practice nurses.
“I am so honored and grateful to be the recipient of this award for 2020. It is everyone’s dream to be recognized and awarded for their exemplary work,” Lee said. “Receiving this award means more than recognition for me, it means that my academic and clinical mentors are also being recognized for the great work they have done.”
Lee will receive the award during NBNA’s annual conference, which will be virtual, on September 24, 2020.
“Both President Thedford and Dr. Lowery are colleagues and friends and fellow UAB alumna,” Lee said. “I have worked with President Thedford in various capacities over my professional career. I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Lowery a couple of years ago in the academic setting prior to her recent death. Both Deborah and Angela are excellent clinicians and educators, and Angela will be sorely missed by the UAB School of Nursing family and family nurse practitioner students. Our work is far from over, but what we've accomplished with our patients and students has made a difference in hundreds of people's lives, and we did it the Blazer way, with excellence, caring, and integrity.”
Lee continuously works to disseminate knowledge through publications and presentations, and at the local, national and international levels. She serves on students’ research and project committees and she has mentored many junior faculties helping them become ranked faculty. She is the 2019-2020 Chair of the UAB Faculty Development Committee and is currently serving a three-year term as an associate editor for the international peer-reviewed academic journal of Ethnicity & Health.
“Academic journals allow us an opportunity to disseminate scientific knowledge, best practices and health-related policies in a thoughtful and critical way in order to improve patient health outcomes,” Lee said.
Lee is a two-time graduate of the UAB School of Nursing, receiving her Master of Science in Nursing in 1991 and PhD in Nursing in 2012.
