Nurses With Global Impact, a nonprofit organization with the mission to connect, support, and celebrate the work of nurses everywhere, will host its seventh annual celebration of International Nurses Day at the United Nations (UN) on May 12. The event honors nurses from around the world who are impacting lives with quality care and comfort and serving as role models for future generations of caregivers.
As part of the celebration, Eileen Sullivan-Marx, PhD, RN, FAAN, FGSA, a visionary nursing leader, educator, and clinician, will be receiving a 2023 Nurses with Global Impact Award. Dr. Sullivan-Marx is the Dean of NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, where her enterprising leadership has created opportunities for faculty and students at the school to engage in global initiatives spanning over 25 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Dr. Sullivan-Marx is past president of the American Academy of Nursing, which she led during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a Trustee of the Gold Foundation, as well as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, New York Academy of Medicine, and the Gerontology Society of America.
Dr. Eileen Sullivan-Marx meets with the Ghanaian Consul General and visiting Ghana Nurse Leaders
She is being honored by Nurses With Global Impact for her remarkable work to advance nursing practice locally and globally, through education, research, practice, interdisciplinary collaborations, and international partnerships. Dr. Sullivan-Marx encourages her faculty to deliver high-quality programs through collaboration with a host of international partners from ministries of health, to nursing and midwifery licensure boards, to universities, local NGOs, and sponsoring agencies. These programs have brought lasting change to nursing practice in countries including Lithuania, Liberia, China, Ghana and Rwanda. The initiatives span health workforce development, educational curriculum, scope of practice, healthy aging and geriatric nursing, maternal and child health, and more.
“The impact of Dr. Sullivan-Marx’s leadership at Rory Meyers College of Nursing is felt not only by Meyers students and faculty, but by countries around the world,” said Gold Foundation Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President Elizabeth Cleek, PsyD. “By creating new pathways in nursing education, she inspires change that enables local communities to better address the health needs of their citizens. She is a true example of a humanistic nursing leader.”
In addition to this honor, Dr. Sullivan-Marx will be recognized with the 2023 National Humanism in Medicine Medal at the Gold Foundation’s Annual Gala, to be held at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City on June 20.
This year also marks her retirement as Dean of NYU’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing, a tenure bookended by Hurricane Sandy and the Covid pandemic, two historic events that underscored the extraordinary impact of her leadership.
Nurses With Global Impact, Inc. was founded by Deb O’Hara Rusckowksi, a nurse leader, former Gold Trustee, and international anti-human trafficking activist who was recognized with the National Humanism in Medicine Medal at the Gold Foundation Gala in 2022. International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world annually on May 12, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth, honoring the remarkable contributions nurses make to society.
