Sheryl Jenkins ’81, B.S.N. ’93, Ph.D. ’05, and Teresa Valerio, M.S.N. ’03, both faculty members at the Mennonite College of Nursing (MCN), have each received an Illinois Board of Education Nurse Educator Fellowship for 2014.
The fellowship includes a nearly $10,000 grant toward continuing research, and is awarded to those who have made significant contributions to their nursing education programs.
Jenkins is an associate professor at Illinois State where she received a doctorate in education administration. She volunteers as an acute care nurse practitioner at Immanuel Health Center, a clinic for the medically underserved. Her areas of specialty includes advanced practice nursing and critical care. Jenkins’ research interests include civility in nursing, academic integrity, transcultural nursing, and rapid response teams. Her research has appeared in peer-reviewed publications such as the Journal of Nursing Education, Nurse Researcher, Journal of Transcultural Nursing, and Nursing Forum.
Jenkins has received the Illinois Board of Higher Education Nurse Educator Award, the Golden Lamp Award for teaching excellence from the University of Illinois, and the Graduate Program Teaching Excellence Award from MCN. She has also received Illinois State University’s Research Initiative Award, Grant Writing Mentorship Award, and Grant Writing Initiative Award.
Valerio heads the Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.) program at MCN and is a nurse practitioner with Illinois State’s Student Health Services. An assistant professor at Illinois State, she holds a doctorate in nursing practice from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research interest is in improving the sleep health of college students and other populations.
In 2012, Valerio was the first nurse practitioner to become board-certified in the practice of behavioral sleep medicine by the American Board of Sleep Medicine. She was honored with the 2011 Book of the Year Award from the American Journal of Nursing as a contributor to the book Sleep Disorders and Sleep Promotion in Nursing Practice. She was a recipient of the Marie Lindsey Spirit of Advanced Practice Nursing Award from the Illinois Society for Advanced Practice Nursing (ISAPN) and of the Nurse Practitioner State Award for Excellence from the American Association for Nurse Practitioners.
